- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clean Team Expands To Keep Downtown “Clean… [So] People Want To Come And Attend An Event.” For the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Megan Guza reports that Downtown Pittsburgh is expanding its Clean Team, as city leaders emphasize that cleanliness is foundational to creating a welcoming, active downtown environment. The teams work to keep streets and public spaces “free of trash and other mess,” ensuring that the “clean image” visitors experience is maintained throughout the day, because, as Mike Mitcham, a senior vice president of the downtown district, explained: “if the streets don’t feel safe and aren’t clean,” people won’t spend time downtown.
- Iowa City, Iowa, Downtown Ambassadors Run “Seven-Day-A-Week Operation” To Keep Public Spaces Clean And Maintained. For The Daily Iowan, Madelyn Johnson reports on Iowa City’s clean team that works to maintain orderly public spaces across downtown, “constantly picking up trash… emptying trash cans, and cleaning up parking lots and garages,” operating as a “seven-day-a-week operation” to ensure consistency and visibility. The team has made a significant impact in the past year: ambassadors have collected more than 318,000 pounds of trash and cleaned over 72,000 curblines.
- Springfield, Missouri, Clean Team Removes “Two Tons Of Trash.” For the Springfield News-Leader, Janis Reeser reports that Springfield’s new dedicated clean team, which is maintaining clean, welcoming public spaces ahead of major Route 66 tourism events, is already making a “noticeable difference,” supported by an initiative that enables “consistent cleanup operations along major corridors and high-traffic roadways.” In just seven days, crews collected “more than 550 large bags of litter,” totaling “two tons of trash removed” from key roadways. The success of the team has prompted city leaders to advance a permanent Clean Team, “that includes city staff, contracted labor and additional support resources … [that] will concentrate on removing trash from public rights-of-way throughout Springfield.”
