EAST LOS ANGELES : $300,000 Grant OKd for Street Cleanup

The Community Redevelopment Agency has approved a $300,000 grant to fund a street cleanup program for another year in Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.

The program, which contracts with the local chambers of commerce to administer the effort, awaits City Council approval after a hearing before the Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee on Monday.

“Merchants say the program has helped to boost business while creating a greater sense of pride in the community,” said Ed Avila, an administrator with the redevelopment agency.

The agency will use federal dollars secured through the city’s Community Development Department to operate the program through June. The program, which was started four years ago, is designed to reduce blight along major commercial streets and attract shoppers, Avila said.

Local residents make up the four-person work crews who collect litter, paint out graffiti and remove grime and gum from sidewalks. The crews also teach cleanup and maintenance techniques to merchants and business owners.

Altogether, 24 jobs have been created and an additional 12 jobs will be formed, pending council approval, said redevelopment agency spokesman Marc Littman.

Over the past four years, the agency said, crews in Boyle Heights collected more than 500 tons of trash, steam-cleaned nearly 400,000 square feet of sidewalk and painted more than 650 buildings defaced with graffiti.

The cleanup in Lincoln Heights--where the program was started last year--collected more than 250 tons of trash, steam-cleaned almost 120,000 square feet of sidewalk and obliterated graffiti on more than 300 buildings.

The designated areas in Boyle Heights include Cesar E. Chavez Avenue between the Golden State (5) Freeway and Fickett Street; 1st Street between Chicago and Saratoga streets and the area surrounding Cesar E. Chavez and Evergreen avenues.

The program in Lincoln Heights targets a larger area that includes Broadway between Avenue 17 and Lincoln Park Avenue and commercial areas along Pasadena Avenue and Daly, Main and Barranca streets.