There’s a push by city leaders to clean up Jacksonville, from parks, to beaches, to waterways.
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The community has been invited to help in some cleanup events, but what happens when there’s a chronic problem with littering and vandalism?
When children could no longer play at a playground in the Spring Park neighborhood on the Southside, the city got word and set out to investigate the problem. What it found is like night and day.
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From overflowing trash bins, to vandalism, to graffiti, the park was becoming a breeding ground for everything except children and families coming to enjoy the facility.
It was a danger for all involved, but former City Councilman Al Ferraro, now city manager of Blight Initiatives, said it’s something he sees routinely on his drives around town investigating nuisance and blight complaints.
“They were using it as their own personal trash cans … full of debris they were collecting, from towels and blankets and cans,” Ferraro told Action News Jax’s Dawn Lopez.