Christina Clark was born in the Baltimore Highlands neighborhood and she has lived most of her 42 years there. She's the third generation of women in her family to scrub stoops and sweep the sidewalks in front of their houses every morning. She keeps all her cleaning supplies right by the front door of her row house.
"I want to thank you for saving my neighborhood," said Clark, and her voice broke. "This is emotional for me."
She was talking to Leanna Wetmore of the Waterfront Partnership, who had organized Sunday's cleanup in the alley between Leverton Avenue and the 3400 block of Baltimore Street. Clark had been working with neighbors and volunteers for hours, getting rid of everything from mattresses to pop cans.
And it wasn't even her alley. Clark said she hopes the volunteers will get to her alley soon because furniture, mattresses and undescribable debris are piled behind her house on Lombard Street, reaching nearly the height of the first floor and pressing so hard against a chain link fence and privacy fence that the barriers are about to topple onto the cement pad that she cleans daily with bleach.
"I have cats, but they can't keep up with the rats," Clark said. Flypaper hangs in her kitchen to catch all the flies the trash attracts.
Wetmore is the community coordinator for Waterfront Partnership, the people who brought you "Mr. Trash Wheel," which is cleaning up the waters of the Inner Harbor. Part of keeping the harbor clean, she explained, is keeping the streets and alleys upstream clean, too. She wore a "Healthy Harbor" T-shirt.
Sunday, after a great dumpster load of trash — most of it dumped by people outside the neighborhood, residents say — was removed and the alley was swept clean, Wetmore's volunteers passed out trash and recycling cans to residents. The first 30 pairs went quickly and more will arrive soon.
Artists were whitewashing fences and cement block walls and lettering a big sign asking illegal dumpers and residents alike to keep the alley clean.
"Neighbors get to know each other," said Wetmore of such workdays. "That increases expectations. And we are leaving artwork behind as a reminder that something has happened here."
Rosalyn Mullen is a resident of the 3400 block of Baltimore St. and she was helping to paint house numbers on the floor of the alley so the city can better identify noncompliant residents.
By noon on Sunday, almost every car pad and yard emptying onto the alley was spick-and-span, but several were still piled high with debris. Rats can be seen scampering in and out of those yards, neighbors said.
"This is awesome," said Mullen. "We have a lot of people who clean their fronts and other people's fronts every morning." But she said more manpower was needed to clean the backs of the rowhouses and the alleys.
"People think it's us, but it isn't," said Clark, who can hardly wait for Wetmore and her collection of volunteers to get to the alley behind her home. "People come from everywhere to our alleys, dump their stuff and speed off."
Wetmore takes a break to check on one of the seven alleys her collection of private and city partners cleaned in April. It is between Baltimore and Noble streets, and it is still reasonably clean. Some debris that spilled from cans during trash collection is evident, and there are a couple of mattresses and some rugs at the open end of the alley. But the brightly colored artwork the children painted on the alley floor during its clean-up is proof that the alley is cared for.
"Families wouldn't let their kids play in the alleys because they were so bad," said Wetmore. Now there's a hopscotch court painted there.
Nearly 20 alleys in Waverly, Baltimore Highlands, Patterson Park, Reservoir Hill, Greenmount West and McElderry Park are being cleaned up this spring and summer.
The project is funded by a $30,000 grant from the Rauch Foundation, but there is also renewed cooperation from the city agencies, including the Department of Public Works and Housing Department of Code Enforcement, as well as neighborhood associations and even the National Guard.
Residents not only provide much of the elbow grease, but also act as interpreters, do the artwork and cook the food that feeds the volunteers.
It isn't that the city doesn't care about the alleys and the people who live on them, Wetmore insisted. "There is just no money in the budgets," she said.
"These alleys became acceptable places for illegal dumping and litter because they look so dismal," said Wetmore. "The bright red trash cans and the shiny yellow recycling bins will act as a marker that someone cares about this block."
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