Group cleans Detroit one block at a time

Workers from Goodwill haul trash, power wash, sweep streets to make downtown sparkle.

By David Josar
The Detroit News

June 28, 2006

"We're seeing the difference we can make, and this city's starting to become spotless," says Cherry Taylor, left, with Jerold McKenzie.
(Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)

DETROIT -- Jerold McKenzie and Cherry Taylor worked like demons, picking up discarded cigarette butts, cast-off Better Made potato chip bags and even a few dead birds as they speed-cleaned their way through what is known as "Sector 403," just south of Comerica Park.

"We're seeing the difference we can make, and this city's starting to become spotless," said Taylor, 41.

She and McKenzie are among 16 Detroiters hired through Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit by the new Clean Downtown project.

In just two weeks, Clean Downtown has picked up 3 = tons of trash and power washed and street-swept roughly 100 blocks of downtown Detroit.

Starting this week, crews are starting their days at 6 a.m., about 90 minutes earlier than before. And extra weekend shifts have been added starting this Saturday and Sunday.

"It's essentially been a startup business. In just a few weeks, we went from having no location, no insurance, no employees, and we're going great and figuring things out," said Paul Childs, who is overseeing Clean Downtown.

Clean Downtown was the brainchild of Super Bowl XL czar Roger Penske. Mirroring what has worked in such cities as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., he decided to tap corporate donors to back a program that would keep the city's central business district nearly spotless.

"The Super Bowl set a standard that we want to keep up," said Ken Kettenbeil, director of communication for the Penske Corp. Kettenbeil was a vice president for the Super Bowl XL host committee.

Robert Thompson of Clean Downtown power washes a sidewalk on Fort Street. Workers are from Goodwill Industries.

Starting June 8, the group began power washing some five square blocks of sidewalks and street-swept 20 square blocks of downtown Detroit each day. The only areas that aren't being touched are Campus Martius, which has daily maintenance funded through a separate nonprofit, and the area around the Book-Cadillac Hotel, which has been cordoned off by city officials in preparation for a renovation project.

Cleaning workers are from Goodwill Industries and earn $7 per hour.

They are graduates of its programs for disadvantaged adults, and include men and women who may have been in prison, have had difficulty holding down a job or been in drug or alcohol rehab.

"There are people who would submit a resume elsewhere and wouldn't even be considered," said Ann Kathleen Laird, Goodwill's vice president of industrial operations. "This is a good start for them."

Ann Lang, president of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, said Clean Downtown's impact is more than just picking up one day's litter.

"I expect a cultural change. We'll start setting an example and then maybe the streets will just start staying cleaner in the first place," Lang said.

Downtown Detroit Partnership, which last month elected Penske board chairman, is running Clean Downtown.

Clean Downtown is working with a $1.2 million budget for the rest of 2006 and estimates it will need $1.5 million for 2007.

Lang said most of the funds have been raised to cover operating costs until the end of the year.

In addition to cash, the group is relying on in-kind donations that so far have ranged from space to park vehicles donated by the Detroit Lions to materials and deep discounts from Home Depot.

Penske donated six panel trucks that are used to haul around employees and their equipment.

Although the program is in its infancy, Childs said plans are already afoot to expand the cleaning effort to include all of the area enclosed roughly by I-75, the Lodge, Jefferson Avenue and I-375.

Work is focused now on the area bounded by Jefferson, Adams, Cass and Beaubien.

You can reach David Josar at (313) 222-2073 or djosar@detnews.com.

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