They came. They saw. They cleaned.
You might notice a little extra shine in downtown Akron.
That's because more than 300 people - mainly volunteers from downtown businesses - helped with the annual spring cleaning project that went well beyond Lock 3. You couldn't miss them, wearing florescent green shirts that dotted both sides of South Main Street itself and at least a couple of blocks both east and west.
While picking up trash and pulling some weeds are big parts of the effort, this work gets even more detailed: Washing down the bus stop shelters, mulching, cleaning building marquees and even scraping gum off the sidewalks.
People seemed to have a sense of pride.
"I think everybody takes pride in what they do at the end of the day, saying that they did their part to make this look better," said Bobby, who was prepping some metal railings at Lock 3 as another member of his team followed behind with black paint.
Others mentioned an economic return.
"It helps attract companies to want to come down here because of how nice downtown is being kept," said a volunteer, working near Canal Park.
Some of the volunteers say that even though there was plenty to keep them busy, they think the downtown area seems to be staying a little cleaner every year.
Green and Clean Day is put together by the Downtown Akron Partnership, which also coordinated Green Fair at Lock 3, featuring companies with environmentally-friendly products.
5/6/2011 1:10:04 PM | Chris Keppler, AkronNewsNow.com
