ST. LOUIS — Five hundred volunteers across St. Louis cleaned up the city during the Urban League’s Clean Sweep.
Volunteers walked neighborhoods, cleaning up trash, debris and overgrowth. Nine abandoned, unsalvageable buildings were knocked down.
"It is an effort to work on the physical appearance of some of our more challenged neighborhoods," said James Clark of the Urban League.
Clark said Clean Sweep targets vacant properties and neighborhood eyesores that can't be saved.
"We really want Clean Sweep to be a day where the entire St. Louis Metro area wakes up, picks up a trash bag and just goes out into their neighborhood on their block and cleans up," Clark said.
Big picture, St. Louis gets a makeover, but it really comes down to a neighborhood-by-neighborhood effort.
"This is what happens when you do development with community,” Mayor Tishaura Jones said. “The Urban League has been in the community and engaged with community partners for decades. This is how community works. This is what community looks like."
The Urban League hopes this effort unifies the city. Two more Clean Sweeps are scheduled this summer and fall.