Alexander Scott is literally helping Evanston clean up after COVID-19 as a member of the new Streetplus Evanston Clean Team created post pandemic to provide enhanced cleaning, maintenance and landscaping services in retail areas across the north suburb.
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“We’re getting a lot of warm welcomes, people saying ‘Hey guys thank you for your help,'” Scott said. “It’s very nice to be appreciated. Give us six months and we’re going to have Evanston really clean.”
The five uniformed members of the Clean Team started work on Nov. 14 in downtown Evanston and also sweep, scrub and polish along Main Street, from Maple to Hinman Avenues and on Howard Street from the CTA tracks to Ridge Avenue. Secondary areas include Church Street and Dodge Avenue, Dempster Street between Hinman Avenue and Elmwood Avenues and a section of Central Street from Eastwood to Hartrey Avenues, said Katie Boden, economic development specialist with the city.
“We’re still in a little bit of a learning curve working out all the systems and getting everybody trained,” she said.
Paul Zalmezak, economic development manager with Evanston, said one of the main purposes of putting the Clean Team together is to help businesses emerge from more than two years of COVID-19 lockdowns and related economic hardships.
“Ensuring Evanston’s unique and vibrant retail districts are clean and welcoming is essential not only for our small businesses, but for our citywide economic recovery,” he said in a release.
The Clean Team is tasked with graffiti, sticker and signage removal, litter and trash pickup, garbage can cleaning, landscape bed maintenance, spot cleaning, pressure washing and seasonal snow removal at crosswalks, Boden said.
“During the pandemic, things got dirtier,” she said. “One of the things we’ve been really focused on as we work toward recovery is looking at all of our retail districts, looking at how we as a city can do things to help them. How can we do the best we can to make it a more welcoming, cleaner more vibrant district to attract people, more foot traffic.”
The Evanston City Council in September signed off on a $508,000 two-year contract with New York based Streetplus to launch a Clean Crew in Evanston, as the company has done in other municipalities post pandemic, Boden said.
“We’re moving into recovery,” she said. “We’re seeing our shopping getting back to normal and people are out. There’s a pent-up demand to be out. We certainly want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to provide an environment that attracts people. We expect it to make a positive difference.”
She said the Clean Team has a Church Street office and its members are also charged with identifying and reporting issues like tree trimming and infrastructure maintenance to 311 so city crews can address them.
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Scott said he picks up at least five face masks a day, and while he’s glad to get them off the street, he hopes people will be more careful with them.
“Be mindful,” he said. “Don’t discard them anywhere. I have to pick them up. There could be germs. I don’t know if the person had COVID.”
He also had a few words for graffiti artists and taggers.
“I love art but use your art in more constructive ways, not tagging up the whole city,” he said. “Get a canvas instead.”
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.