Neighbors Work to Spruce Up Allston's Everett Street

Walking down my own block in Allston Sunday afternoon, I came upon discarded TVs, destroyed furniture, and broken beer bottles. I have seen many parts of Allston treated more as a temporary staging or dumping zone than as a neighborhood. That is why I was so happy to see this article on the newsstand at my local convenience store:

[Roughly a dozen volunteers] met with the Allston-Brighton North Neighbors’ Forum on Aug. 2 and 3 to plant trees and bushes along Everett Street between Lincoln and Adamson streets...

“This is a site that’s been pretty neglected,” said Mattison. “There are these sort of bands, these slivers and patches, of the neighborhood that have gone neglected for too long, and [it’s] too east to forget they are there.”

The neighborhood group was awarded a $2,500 CityRoots grant by the Urban Ecology Institute to cover the costs of supplies. The group also provided a community forester and a consulting landscape architect to help plan the event.

“The program is designed to help out with a lot of areas,” said Tim Porter, the community forester hired for the task. “The planting helps improve air quality; also there’s an aspect of the process to build neighborhood unity and to introduce as many stakeholders and all the diverse groups of people in the neighborhood to one another.” [Full Article in Allston Brigton Tab]

I was excited to see these people working in my neighborhood, and more than a bit surprised that I hadn't heard about it in the first place. Inspired, I immediately looked up the Allston-Brighton North Neighbors' Forum and found a google group and a community blog, both full of posts by engaged local citizens. You can be sure I'll know the next time something like this takes place.

How's that for the power of positive media??