Two weekends, some elbow grease, $50,000 in donated goods and services and 400-500 volunteers gave a much needed facelift to several shops along Saginaw Avenue in Lansing’s Westside neighborhood.
Neighborhood volunteers and Michigan State University (MSU) volunteers spent two weekends in October power-washing and painting the exteriors of businesses and houses on the Westside. They also added flower planters to the area.
“For private investment to take place, the area needs to look nice,” says Westside Alliance Program Manager Jessica Yorko about wanting to change the public’s perception of the area.
The initiative started when a Westside homeowner called the North West Initiative asking if it could do anything to clean up the rundown areas of his neighborhood.
Yorko and the North West Initiative delivered, getting help from 15 teams of MSU students and neighborhood residents and pulling together several community sponsorships.
Source: Jessica Yorko, North West Initiative
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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