Sidewalk sweeping eagerly awaited in area

Spring cleaning is starting a little early for many people in University City. The University City Special Service District's sidewalk sweeping project will begin cleaning January 19 and the community is waiting eagerly, said district board member Barry Grossbach. "We have had a large community response," Grossbach said. "Many people in University city are becoming involved -- realtors, businesses and home owners." The district, created in 1990 and modeled after the successful Center City District, uses voluntary donations from area businesses and residences to augment city services. Alan Presser of Monarch Hardware said that he feels very strongly about the project and that it was important to help create a better image for University City. "I feel the project is important for a few reasons," Presser said. "One, to keep the streets clean; once they are clean the people will keep them clean. The second is community involvment. By creating a special service district, people know that we care about our community and this will possibly increase desirability for renting and buying in the area." Rebecca Trumbull said that although her home near Windsor and 48th streets was not included when the district's boundaries were first decided, she decided to contribute anyway because it affected her walk to work. "It's a wonderful thing that's happening to the neigborhood," said Trumbull. "During the pilot I saw a lot of changes and they made a difference in the community." Unversity City Housing owner Michael Karp said that he has high hopes for the future of this project. "Maybe this will expand beyond just cleaning streets into some kind of a community watch program or other types of services, but for now it is nice to know that there are people in the community that you can turn to," Karp said. "Once people see that we are taking extra care of our community then maybe they will be more willing to help us," said Robert Radke, district treasurer and director of operations for Alan H. Klein Apartments. Radke also expressed appreciation of the University's contributions but added, "It is nice that the University is participating, but we hope our community members will help others who help themselves." The University is not technically part of University City. "The University had done a tremendous service to the community [by becoming involved with the project]," Trumbull said. After a brief pilot project last fall, the district began to make provisions to start on a full scale. Due to lack of funding, however, the sweeping will start in January on a smaller scale, according to Grossbach.