Abiba Biao photos
Alder Mabery-Niblack, Kierra Guest, and Steve Winter ...
... ready to clean clean clean, including the pile of trash sitting outside Felicia Jones’s apartment.
Felicia Jones couldn’t believe how much trash her former neighbors had dumped at the corner of Read and Butler streets.
Two weeks after those neighbors had moved out, the pile remained — stopping fellow Newhallville resident Gwenadine Felder in her tracks as she made her way down the block to pick up litter as part of a neighborhood cleanup.
Felder and seven others took part in Saturday morning’s cleanup, which was organized by Newhallville Alder Brittiany Mabery-Niblack and Ward 20 Democratic Co-Chairs Barbara Vereen and Latoya Agnew.
This was just the most recent outing for what has become regular weekend cleanings. The group meets on the third Saturday of every month at Lincoln-Bassett Community School at 9 a.m., and then chooses from there a different section of Newhallville to tidy up.
“This neighborhood needs cleaning. It’s crazy!” exclaimed Mabery-Niblack’s daughter Kierra Guest, a recent graduate of Amity Middle School. “We’re not gonna make it past 2050 if this neighborhood looking like this.”
For Mabery-Niblack, these cleanups are all about community pride.
“I believe that the more we stay consistent, and show the neighborhood that we care … people will see what we’re doing, the work that we’re doing, and they may potentially want to get involved,” she said.
Former Newhallville/Dixwell/Prospect Hill Alder, current state representative candidate, and city climate and sustainability director Steve Winter joined the group, stressing the importance of “being a good neighbor.” He gently picked up a Skittles candy container, inspected it, and said, “This is going into the recycling.”
It didn’t take long for the crew to spot litter on sidewalks, in puddles, and on grassy strips. Their efforts didn’t go unnoticed, invoking an occasional “thank you” from onlookers who watched the group from their porches or as they walked down the street.
“We need some grass,” Mabery-Niblack said, gesturing towards the curb strip, littered in leaves and a small pile of tattered clothes. “This is just dirt.”
Environmental stewardship has been a topic on Mabery-Niblack’s mind for a while now, as she’s been dreaming up an initiative called the “Newhallville Beautification Project.” She posed the idea as an effort to beautify the neighborhood by prioritizing environmental design elements such as planting flowers and maintaining shrubbery.
“If people feel good about where they live at, they would want to take care of it,” she said.
“Yes,” Vereen agreed, nodding in agreement.
As Vereen and Newhallville/Dixwell/Prospect Hill Alder Troy Streater made their way down Bassett Street picking up litter, they stopped to discuss setting up an impromptu community meeting.
For Vereen, the improvement of Newhallville isn’t a task she takes lightly. She created a vision board when she moved into the neighborhood. A Newhallville resident for 24 years, Vereen said she strives to prioritize “real community engagement” and “real community development.”
“I want us to be able to eat at the restaurants on Dixwell Avenue outside like they do in East Rock,” she said. “I want us to have community development in stores that is owned by people that live in this neighborhood, so that we could bring back the wealth and bring back the pride that was in this neighborhood when I first moved here.”
Vereen doesn’t know how long her duration as co-chair will be. She plans to retire in seven years from her primary occupation, but she may leave her position as co-chair sooner. Before then, Vereen wants to inspire a new generation to succeed her and encourage people to get involved.
Gwenadine Felder.
Felder, who lives on Bassett Street, participated in Saturday’s cleanup for the first time. She said she is determined to “get more involved” within her neighborhood.
“I’ve lived here since I was like a year old, and lately, I’ve just been looking at it and I’m wondering about it, like, God, you know, there’s got to be more that we could do to help in the neighborhood to make it a better, more inviting place for people to come,” she said.
She said that Vereen’s idea of bringing back neighborhood vitality through entrepreneurship and local businesses resonated with her. She emphasized the importance of neighborhood connection to community health. Growing up in a time where “everybody knew everybody,” Felder said she would like to see a resurgence of the community events and social interaction that were lost as time passed.
“And over the years, things did change. People changed, you know? Different people come in the neighborhood and some care, some don’t care … I would like to see it get back to how it used to be, headed in that direction where people are more cordial and more friendly.”
The cleanup crew.