HOUSTON – Volunteers and community leaders were out for hours Saturday morning for a clean up event along the Bissonnet Street corridor.
It’s a project being spearheaded by several city agencies.
This is part of the city’s One Clean Houston Initiative. People from across the community came out this morning to pick up trash along what’s known as the Bissonnet Track.
It was an early morning for city leaders, HPD officers, and volunteers as they worked to clean up illegal dumping, found along Bissonnet near the Southwest Freeway.
“You think about why we’re out here today it’s for the people who live here, go to school here, work here every single day,” said District 3 Councilman Edward Pollard.
They got started at the METRO park and ride before spanning out across the area to pick up trash.
For years, the area has been plagued. In recent months, HPD has set up street blockades to attempt to curb sex trafficking and prostitution in the area.
Now, they’re wanting to use other methods outside of pursuing criminal charges to beautify the area and keep it safe.
“We could not do this without community partnership, we would not be here today with the success that we’ve seen without the commitment of our local businesses and residents,” said Commander Reece Hardy with HPD.
Volunteers and city leaders are doing their part to clean up a part of the city in desperate need of it.
“We want the residents and business owners to know that we’re investing in the community, we’re coming out here ourselves with sweat, equity, human capital to get out, go to the streets, pick up the trash, all the illegal dumping and let them know we hear them,” Pollard said.
More than $17 million has been put into the One Clean Houston initiative to clean up areas across the city.