Recently, our office initiated a new initiative we’re calling the “Keep the Neighborhood Clean Campaign” to help clean up the streets of our home: Greenwich Village.
As a small company that literally hits the streets with our customers every single day, we’re in a unique position to receive feedback from visitors to the neighborhood. In the past 14 years, we’ve toured thousands of hungry tourists and New Yorkers through the picturesque and historic Greenwich Village, and recently we’ve been receiving comments from our guests about the garbage on the streets and sidewalks. “This is New York; we expect it!“
But we expect more from New York. This is not the reputation we want for our great city or one of our favorite neighborhoods, so we officially began the Keep the Neighborhood Clean Campaign.
Director of Operations Amy Bandolik gets hands on.
Our campaign inclues the following:
  • We’ve asked all local shops and restaurants to clean up in front of their establishments by 10:15am (picking up garbage, sweeping, hosing down the sidewalk).
  • Some shops are not open every day or not always able to spare someone to clean up outside, in which case the staff of Foods of NY Tours will be there to lend a hand.
  • If a shop is having trouble accommodating our requests, we’re going to work with them to come up with a solution that will work for everyone.
  • We’ll also be working in conjunction with the ACE clean up crews.
Tour guide Heather and Amy work together to pick up trash.
We realize that keeping streets that accommodate thousands of visitors a day is no small task, especially for the smaller businesses that have only one or two people working at a time. But with our direct help and the entire neighborhood working in this concerted effort, we know that keeping Greenwich Village beautiful will have a direct positive impact on the businesses, as well. Additionally, we’ll be reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the sewage system and our waterways as a result of runoff when it rains.
It’s not a glamorous effort that will have any kind of fancy one-time payout, but it’s one that we find well worth our time. Many of the businesses in the neighborhood are already great stewards of the space outside their storefronts, so it is our hope that we’ll do an even better job when we are all working together to keep the streets clean.
It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it!
If you’ve been a part of a successful cleanup campaign in the past, please contact us and let us know how it went! We’re happy to hear any suggestions, tips, or comments you might have.