Neighborhood History

Celebrate Brightside’s Thirtieth Anniversary With A Clean And Green Neighborhood

By Becky Homan

April–May 2012

Historical April–May 2012 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Cinco de Mayo — that celebration of Margaritas and all great things from south of the border — also is this year’s Project Blitz cleanup day in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. Get your friends and neighbors together for some alley litter removal, weeding, disposal of household trash, yard waste and bulk-pickup items on Saturday, May 5, and then celebrate the Cinco de Mayo way! Actually, both May 5 and 6 are dates chosen by Brightside St. Louis for our neighborhood and the area bounded by Natural Bridge on the north; Taylor on the east; Metrolink & Lindell on the south, & the city limits on the west. You may continue to clean and deposit trash on Sunday May 6 because trash collection is to begin at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, May 7, following our Blitz weekend.

In recent years, you may remember, Blitz days for Skinker-DeBaliviere came early on the Brightside calendar — often in late March or early April.

This year, the Blitz schedule moved into April and May to avoid having bulk items in alleys over holiday weekends, says Brightside executive director and former S-D resident Mary Lou Green. “Also this year, in celebration of our 30th anniversary,” says Green, “Brightside has planted 500,000 daffodils city-wide, we’ve changed our name to Brightside St. Louis, we’ve launched a new website at brightsidestl.org and we’re inviting neighbors to visit our new Demonstration Garden at the corner of Kingshighway and Vandeventer. And for Blitz, we will be working with neighbors around the city to clean up over 7 million pounds of trash.

We are counting on everyone to do their part.” She adds that other Brightside volunteers have sown some 235,000 flower seeds for distribution as blooming plants after the clean-up, “to beautify the public areas on each block.” Here are some basic rules of the Brightside St. Louis Blitz in our neighborhood: • Block Captains.

Each block should have a Blitz captain with supplies — brooms, rakes, trash bags and flat-blade shovels to use as dust pans.

If your block does not have a captain or if you want to find out who your captain is, call Brightside at 772-4646 or email brightsidestlouis@gmail.com. You may even want to sign up to be a captain yourself; the same phone number and email address applies. • Small Trash Items. Put your smaller household trash into the designated brown trash dumpsters. Be careful not to overload. Loose trash and debris will NOT be picked up.

All smaller debris must be put into trash dumpsters. • Bulk Trash Items. Just a few days before May 5, place large items directly behind your home at the edge of your side of the alley (your regular bulk pick-up site). Large items that will be picked up include furniture, tires, and appliances (please remove doors for safety). Large appliances, tires, car batteries and motor oil also will be collected but separately from other bulk items so that they may be recycled. Do not block alleys with bulk items and do not place bulk items within four feet of any dumpster.

Please call 622-4800 on Wednesday May 9 if bulk items from your Blitz weekend have not been picked up. • Recyclables. Clean glass, plastic bottles, cans, paper and cardboard items go in these bright blue dumpsters. • Yard Waste. Leaves, grass clippings and smaller stems of plants, ONLY, go in these brightgreen dumpsters. Large branches do not go into the yard waste dumpster.

These must be cut in lengths no longer than 3 feet, bundled and placed near bulk items for collection; this is essential since loose branches will not be collected. • Blitz Blooms. Brightside also will have an array of bright annuals — zinnias, marigolds, portulaca, gomphrena and celosia — available for planting on public property on the Saturday after our Blitz. Flowers must be requested by the Brightside captain on your block (again, call Brightside at 772-4646 or email brightsidestlouis@gmail. com to contact your captain).

A final thought for May 5: If Margaritas are not your thing, take some advice from a Kentucky native (me). May 5 also is Kentucky Derby Day. Toil in the alley and celebrate with friends around the TV at 4 p.m., for the beginning of Derby coverage. Wear a hat (your gardening hat from alley work will do), have great appetizers and, oh yes, a mint julep if you’re so inclined.