Vols sprout to clean city
TIME FOR SOME spring cleaning.
Armed with rakes, shovels, trash bags and paintbrushes, more than 4,000 volunteers took to the city’s parks and gardens Saturday to spruce up the public spaces in time for the warmer weather.
The do-gooders descended upon 74 city parks, gardens, bike lanes and shorelines throughout the five boroughs as part of the 22nd annual New York Cares Day Spring.
“It is a day for getting New York City ready for summer,” New York Cares Executive Director Gary Bagley said. “Parks and gardens are extremely important for New Yorkers. When we leave a park or a garden, we always leave a little bit happier.”
One beautification project, organized by the Department of Transportation, saw a few dozen volunteers jazzing up concrete bike-lane barriers along the Columbia Street Greenway in the Columbia Street Waterfront District of Brooklyn.
Volunteers rolled yellow and black paint through laser-cut stencils on the sky-blue barriers.
Nancy Ahn, the East Williamsburg-based artist behind the “Crushing It” mural running a few blocks along the East River, said the shapes were inspired by video game prizes.
There are bright yellow gems, or “rupees,” from the Zelda franchise, and bright yellow bananas, straight out of the Donkey Kong series.
“These are prizes you achieve just by going past them in video games,” Ahn said.
More than 1,700 feet of concrete barriers were painted Saturday across the city.
In the Bronx, volunteers flocked to Orchard Beach and Pelham Bay Park to pick up trash and rake through sand dunes.
And in Riverside Park alone, 200 HSBC employees and their relatives helped with planting, weeding and mulching.
“It’s a nice day in the park to make New York beautiful,” said Matt Kutas, 39, of Long Island City. “Manual labor always feels fulfilling.”