Crew Cleans Section of Ventura Boulevard

Gloria Woods doesn’t consider cleaning a chore. For her and dozens of other Studio City residents, it’s a form of self-empowerment.

“The city just doesn’t have the resources to really clean the neighborhoods anymore,” she said. “People can’t just sit around and wait for them to show up.”

As a member of the Studio City Residents Assn.’s board of directors, Woods decided to organize those who felt the same way. On Saturday, about 60 volunteers traveled down Ventura Boulevard with brooms, rakes and plastic bags.

The association, along with the Studio City Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit New Directions for Youth, plans quarterly cleanups. They divide an area into manageable segments and, among other things, remove weeds and garbage, rake leaves and remove debris from planters.

Saturday’s crew cleaned from Whitsett Avenue to Colfax Avenue. In the future, Woods said crews might travel major north-south boulevards like Laurel Canyon or Lankershim.

Efforts also are underway to involve merchants, who would take responsibility for maintaining trees and sidewalks in front of their stores.

“We have to do something to try to improve the boulevard,” she said. “It’s our community.”

Woods conceded that the cleaning concept is not new, pointing to an example set by a group of Reseda women who are gradually beautifying street median strips. But, she said, innovation takes a backseat to simply “doing something positive.”