Sprucing up the NEIGHBORHOOD
FAGAN STREET PROJECT RESULTS IN CLEANER STREETS, ENERGIZED ALTON PARK COMMUNITY
Box springs, mattresses and other junk often lined Fagan Street. Discarded tires sat in overgrown grass, and trash blew along the road in the Alton Park community.
But all of that is changing. Recently, the city hosted the inaugural Alton Park Street Fest and Cleanup, an event that represented more than a cleanup. Residents see the effort as a way to raise the perception of Fagan Street and uplift the entire South Chattanooga community, said City Councilman Erskine Oglesby, who organized the cleanup and represents the neighborhood on the City Council.
“You clean that one street, and then it starts resonating in other areas,” said Oglesby. “This was just the start of the total revitalization of the Alton Park area.”
No shootings or gang violence clouded the community that day. Police officers and residents cleaned streets together. The afternoon ended with city officials and residents celebrating their efforts at the Southside Community Park. A Jazzanooga choir sang, while kids danced and adults applauded.
Oglesby said he coordinated the cleanup to keep a promise to Fagan Street residents who asked for it while he campaigned for his District 7 council seat.
Fagan Street is the first citysponsored Alton Park cleanup this year. There will be others. The goal is to empower residents to keep it going so when they see paper in the street, they pick it up.
The Southside Leadership
Advisory Council, which includes several Alton Park residents, walked up and down Alton Park distributing fliers about the event. They wanted everybody to show up, and the people responded.
“That’s the cleanest I’ve seen that street since I lived there,” said former resident Quadra Montana Morgan, who lived in Alton Park 18 years.
He and fellow Dreams Come True co-founder Toriq Johnson cleaned trash on the street and in the woods while telling parents and children about their upcoming community basketball tournament featuring players who live in Alton Park.
Their tournament is Saturday at 6 p.m. in the UTC Maclellan Gym. Tickets are $5 for ages 12 and younger and $8 for ages 13 and up. It’s a fundraiser for their Dreams Come True Foundation, which offers career and mentoring programs for youth. The foundation also is hosting an Alton Park Picnic on June 30.
Local Nation of Islam leader Kevin Muhammad brought members of the 10,000 Fearless program to paint and clean a formerly boarded-up building on Fagan Street. Muhammad said the house had been abandoned for years until his group contacted the owner and the owner agreed to reinvest in the property.
Now two members of the 10,000 Fearless live in the duplex, and it will be the site for the 10,000 Fearless precinct. The 10,000 Fearless is a national initiative started by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
“The mission of the 10,000 Fearless program is to make our community a safe and decent place to live,” said Muhammad.
The city of Chattanooga also got in on the effort. Public Works crews cut grass around 38th and Workman streets, and EPB replaced all Fagan Street streetlights to help the area be more safe. Some residents commented that they saw city street sweepers come through Fagan Street for the first time since they lived in the community in preparation for the cleanup.
The cleanup comes just months after the Oak Hills Neighborhood Association landed a grant to get a mural painted on the entranceway to Miliken Park in Alton Park. The mural, painted by Eduardo Mendieta, is called “Embrace the Future, Remembering the Past.” It depicts the history of the community.
The cleanup coincided with the unveiling of a mural in the 4300 block of Oakland Avenue called “Burnin Bridges,” coordinated by artist Eric Finley, known as Seven. And the nonprofit Alton Park Development Corp. is behind a new jazz, inspiration and talk-radio station in Alton Park called WPTPChatt.com, 100.1 FM
The Alton Park community is looking up, said McCullough. He credits Mayor Andy Berke for many recent improvements.
“You have the older people, and they’ve been through years of being promised something and nothing was ever delivered,” said McCullough. “Now we’ve got a new park; we’ve got several murals; we’ve got neighborhood markers. Overall, I think people are beginning to see that something is happening.”
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@ timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.