‘A perfect place to be’
Arlington Park gets a Saturday spring cleaning
Tia Ziegler and three of her friends grew up in Arlington. On a gorgeous sun-splashed Saturday, they took some time to do some spring cleaning in their neighborhood.
Ratherthan sleep in, Ms. Ziegler, Brendan Baehr, Ryan Kozikowski, and Brianna Waleko joined about 15 other volunteers to pick up trash and litter in Arlington Spray Park.
“This was the kind of park that we played on. It was never really cleaned up,” Ms. Ziegler said. “You kind of had to watch where you were stepping and where you fell. You just don’t want the other kids going through that.”
State Rep. Jessica Benham, a Democrat who was elected in November, and the Arlington Civic
Council, organized the cleanup, which was followed in the afternoon by an Easter egg hunt in the park.
“I think it is critically important to show that we value our community spaces. And one of the ways we cando that is by coming together as a community to keep it clean,” said Ms. Benham, who represents the neighborhood.
She and the civic council hope to make the cleanup an annual event for the overall park, which also includes a basketball court, a baseball field with lights, a play area, benches and tables.
The Easter egg hunt would be the first in probably five or six years for the neighborhood. Annie Parrish, the civic council’s recording secretary, said the group decided to restart it because “there’s nothing back here.”
“We feel like sometimes we’re the lost community, we’re forgotten back here. I mean, Jess doesn’t forget us. But a lot of the other ones, they forget we’re here,” she maintained. “I mean, our park is in disarray because they won’t fix it. Theysay they have no money.”
Ms. Parrish said the city should be paying more attention to the park and the neighborhood as a whole.
“We got a good group of people back here. I was born here. I was raised here and I don’t want to leave and I pay a lot in taxes,” she said.
There have been requests for security cameras and better lighting in the park. Ms. Benham said there had been several shootings in the vicinity in the past year or so. The park itself has been the scene of vandalism and drug use in the past.
But the community wants to reclaim the space with events such as the spring cleanup and the Easter egg hunt. The civic council also is planning a Fourth of July celebration in the park.
“What we have to do is step up and come together as a community to take care of these spaces,” Ms. Benham said.
The Easter egg hunt was shaping up to be a big event, with nearly 100 children signed up. In addition to the hunt itself, there were other activities for kids and
a cotton candy machine to satisfy the sweet tooth.
Another of those who participated in the cleanup was Roy E. Blankenship, outreach manager for Hilltop Alliance, a nonprofit that works on behalf of 11 south Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Arlington.
He snagged about 15 softballs and two basketballs during his morning labor.
“It’s a perfect place to be on a Saturday if I can give mytime to help out the community,” he said.
Ms. Benham said she hopes to do cleanups in all of the neighborhoods in her district. The next one is scheduled for Mt. Oliver on April 10.
Mr. Baehr viewed his work in the park and at the ballfield Saturday as an act of service to others.
“Once upon a time, that was us down there playing, so we’re trying to take care of it for the next generation,” he said.
Similar motives drove Ms. Ziegler.
“I just wanted to help out. It’s two hours out of your day in the morning. It’s not like a lot of time and it’s going toward a good cause. This whole time we’ve been messing around and having fun, so it’s not even like you’re doing any work, really,” she said.