Beautification Crews Decorate Memorials

Memorials to war veterans were decorated with flowers planted by workers of the Boyle Heights Beautification Project last week as part of the program’s effort to improve the area.

The program, which was started in 1989, has three crew members and a weekend crew of community service workers who pick up litter, empty trash cans, paint over graffiti and steam-clean sidewalks six days a week in commercial sections of Boyle Heights.

It is a cooperative program funded by the city Sanitation Department and companies within the area. The Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce also holds fund-raisers to help pay the $10,000 monthly cost for the program.

“The program is highly regarded because it keeps the area clean and attractive to shoppers, whereas in the past it was not kept up,” said Ralph Carmona, manager of the beautification program.

For the last year, the program has used people sentenced to community service by local judges for staffing Saturday cleanups, Carmona said.

The crews have targeted Brooklyn Avenue between the Santa Ana Freeway and Mott Street; 1st Street between Chicago and Saratoga streets; and the areas surrounding Brooklyn and Evergreen avenues.

The crews also clean other areas as needed, such as the World War II Hispanic Veterans Memorial at Brooklyn Avenue and Lorena Street and other sections of Boyle Heights, Carmona said.

The beautification project works on “getting these areas clean, keeping them vital and generating the dollars,” he said. “It’s a highly visible program with direct physical results that people can see.”