City turns out for Keep Santa Fe Beautiful cleanup

Apr. 13—Across Santa Fe on Saturday morning, people rolled out of bed, grabbed sun hats, kids, grandparents and trash bags and started cleaning up the city's streets and arroyos.

"We did Gonzales Road this morning; it's all tickety-boo," City Councilor Signe Lindell, a longtime participant in the Great American Cleanup, said at a morning kickoff event.

"Here's the funny thing: When people see you out doing that, then they do it," Lindell continued. "But, as I keep saying, the bottom line here is, if you don't throw it out of your car, I don't have to pick it up. The bottom line is, be a part of the solution."

Santa Fe has participated in the Great American Cleanup, an annual beautification event for communities across the U.S., since the founding of the nonprofit Keep Santa Fe Beautiful (an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful) nearly 40 years ago, said Carol Branch, the nonprofit's executive director and city's environmental services program manager.

Organizers hoped to get 2,500 volunteers to participate in this year's cleanup and gather somewhere around 20 tons of litter, which if they hit the goal would make the cleanup the largest in Santa Fe's history, Branch said. Organizers did not have a final count of volunteers Saturday.

Keep Santa Fe Beautiful handed out gloves and trash bags to volunteers of all ages who spread across the city and left heaps of bagged trash in designated locations. City environmental services and parks staff, along with one county worker, then drove around collecting the bags in the afternoon.

Santa Fe County participated in Saturday's cleanup for the first time in about five years, though county workers regularly took part before the coronavirus pandemic, Branch said. She hopes a strengthened partnership with the county could expand the cleanup outside the city of Santa Fe in future years, she added.

"I'm just happy that we were a part of this," said County Commissioner Anna Hansen. "I think it's really important it's another city-county initiative."

Several volunteers said the amount of litter in Santa Fe — mostly around businesses and in the city's arroyos — has increased over the years. Many mentioned homeless encampments as a growing source of litter — though far from the only source.

"I'm a native Santa Fean, so I can't complain about it unless I'm ready to do something about it," said Clare Ryan, as she helped a group of volunteers pick glass, cardboard, needles, tires, cigarette butts, plastic bits and other trash out of an arroyo on the city's midtown campus.

Several volunteers at midtown were members of the S3 Santa Fe Housing Initiative. Cleanups go hand-in-hand with advocacy for the homeless, S3 member Jean Palmer said.

The group holds cleanups a few times a month, she said. Over the past year, volunteers cleaned an estimated more than eight tons of trash from city and county streets, arroyos and parks.

Only a few people started the effort, but others have joined in and "we're thrilled about the progress that we've been able to make," Palmer said. "We are making a difference, and we're getting to know the unhoused, also. Sometimes, people are reluctant to even say hello to someone who's unhoused, and they are people just like we are."

Ricky Olguin, who has formerly been homeless, incarcerated and addicted to drugs, said he took part in the cleanup at midtown Saturday to "pay back what was given to me because I got a second chance in life."

"I used to sleep out here. ... I'm cleaning up my own mess," Olguin said, stressing compassion for the homeless. Someone on the street "might be a homeless drug addict, but he's somebody's son, he's somebody's brother, somebody's uncle. All he needs is a little love, you know?"

A common attitude among volunteers was that everyone should pitch in to tackle the city's litter problem.

"When I see something, I pick it up," said Teri Brown, as she picked through a mess of cigarette butts. "I tend to put it in my pocket or find a trash can. ... I was a teacher, so you try to set an example."

Beautifying the whole city will take a culture change, said City Councilor Lee Garcia, describing cleanups as a "50/50" responsibility shared by local government and residents.

"The average citizen should be doing it," Councilor Pilar Faulker echoed. "Most Americans have completely forgotten that."

Events like the Great American Cleanup help build a sense of responsibility and community, volunteers like Chaparral Elementary principal Erica Martinez-Maestas said.

While several schools held schoolwide cleanups on Friday, Martinez-Maestas held a community cleanup at her school on Saturday for the third year in a row.

Students ran around with their families cleaning up the school and nearby arroyo, picking up both trash — enough to fill a large dumpster — and plastic Easter eggs containing tickets for small prizes.

"Teamwork, family [and] community for me are the biggest things," Martinez-Maestas said as families gathered after the cleanup for bingo and snacks. "This type of event brings you a sense of community and that value of ... we need to take care of our environment and our little world."

"There's a really good little community here," Veronica Contreras, the mother of a Chaparral student, said after the cleanup. "Everyone's doing their part today."