December 2021
A proposal for everyday care
The Gramercy Park Block Association’s December 16 letter announced plans for a professionally run neighborhood cleaning program in the new year. It drew on the clean-streets approach used by New York business improvement districts and asked neighbors to help fund the work.
The proposal addressed litter, overflowing receptacles, stickers and graffiti. It followed earlier neighborhood cleanup and planting efforts, including the Doe Fund street-cleaning partnership, while setting out a new program for regular daily attention.
May 2022
Clean Streets begins
The May 10 launch letter introduced eight-hour daily coverage, seven days a week. Sweeping, litter-receptacle care, graffiti removal, painting, clearing drains, snow shoveling and power-washing formed part of the program.
Its service area reached both sides of the streets surrounding Gramercy Park, along with adjoining stretches of Lexington Avenue and Irving Place. The neighborhood’s public spaces were the focus of the work.
June 2022
Neighbors meet the team
The next month, the Block Association introduced Mamadou Tall and Saliou Diop, who brought experience with StreetPlus and other New York neighborhoods. Their interviews made the program personal: the work mattered, and so did being greeted and appreciated by people passing by.
2022–2024
A record of the changes
The December 2022 follow-up included before-and-after photographs of work around the neighborhood. It connected continued donor support with the program’s ability to carry on into the next year.
A November 2024 letter illustrated the crew’s daily work and asked neighbors to help fund it. Read about the Clean Streets program.
The work you meet today
The proposal has become the familiar work of Clean Streets & Streetscape. Sweeping, painting and repeated attention to the same corners turn neighbors’ contributions into a difference visible on the walk home.