Over the weekend, one Dayton neighborhood was the focus of a large cleanup operation. Saturday, in the Five Oaks neighborhood, volunteers, gathered along with police units and city officials to pick up trash, mow lawns and remove overgrown brush on three streets surrounding a park on Richman and Delaware streets..
Verletta Jackson is with Dayton Planning and Community Development. She believes clean-up operations have a positive impact on neighborhoods like Five Oaks, and that “It really enhances and also gives the community encouragement."
Jackson notes that surrounding neighbors "come out and cut their own grass, to actually get up and bring their lawn mowers and assist us with cutting other grass, and it’s just like, ‘wow, you’re here to help us so we’re gonna get out and do something.’
Bill Marvin, President of the 5 Oaks Neighborhood Improvement Association, says the clean up effort has a duel purpose by shining a "spotlight on criminal activity."
Marvin says, "Criminals don’t like to operate in the light, and when we do this you know, you get all this attention, and the police are buzzing around, and all these people are here sending a message to the bad guys, ‘This is ours, you guys stay away. Don’t violate the sanctity of the neighborhood."
Organizers say this is the second event like this one, with many more to come.