ABOUT
NYC Community Cleanup is a new citywide initiative designed to address neighborhood hot spots and eyesores. NYC Community Cleanup puts low-level offenders (arrested for minor offenses such as vandalism, shoplifting, and public drunkenness) to work repairing conditions of disorder throughout New York City. The goal is to create meaningful community service work projects that emphasize the values of immediacy (tying a crime to its consequences); visibility (showing New Yorkers that the justice system is responding to neighborhood problems); and accountability (ensuring high compliance rates). NYC Community Cleanup has three principal components:
Targeting Local Needs: Using data from a variety of sources—the city's 311 system, foreclosure reports, crime maps—NYC Community Cleanup identifies neighborhoods across New York City that are struggling with visible signs of disorder. This data is augmented by focused outreach to community boards and precinct councils to determine local priorities. In addition, New Yorkers can e-mail NYC Community Cleanup at notify@nycleanup.org to suggest ideas for possible projects. NYC Community Cleanup projects are efforts to take care of chronic and emerging neighborhood problems. This includes sorting recyclables, sweeping streets, cleaning up local parks, and improving blighted waterfront areas. Cleaning Up NYC: After identifying local problems, NYC Community Cleanup sends out supervised work crews to address them. The crews are comprised of individuals referred by criminal court judges to pay their debt to New York through community service. Work crews are highly visible: participants wear special vests and jump suits (depending upon the weather and the activity) and have saw horses and special signage advertising that they are part of NYC Community Cleanup. All NYC Community Cleanup participants are offered links to social services—drug treatment, job training, and counseling. Any individual who does not complete their community service as ordered is immediately referred back to court for re-sentencing. Communicating the Results: One of NYC Community Cleanup’s goals is to demonstrate to New Yorkers that justice is at work in their communities. This includes not just an emphasis on visible restitution projects but also a public communications campaign including presentations by NYC Community Cleanup staff at local churches, schools and community groups, as well as a website that enables users to see before and after photos of the work that has been done in their neighborhoods. |
NYC Community Cleanup is an effort to go to scale with the model of targeted community restitution originally pioneered by the City of New York and the New York State Unified Court System in three award-winning community courts—Midtown Community Court, Red Hook Community Justice Center, and Bronx Community Solutions. Researchers have documented that these projects have helped to reduce local crime and levels of neighborhood fear while improving public trust in justice. NYC Community Cleanup is operated as a project of the Center for Court Innovation in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator.
The Project Director of NYC Community Cleanup is James Brodick. Currently, in addition to serving as the Director of Cleanup, Mr. Brodick also leads the planning and implementation of the Center’s newest project, the Brownsville Community Justice Center. Mr. Brodick previously worked as Project Director of the Red Hook Community Justice Center, the multi-jurisdictional community court in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mr. Brodick joined the Center for Court Innovation in 1998 and has held numerous positions at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, including project coordinator of the Red Hook Public Safety Corps (an AmeriCorps program), director of Community Programs (which includes mediation, housing resources, youth court, AmeriCorps and Operation Tool Kit), and deputy director. He received his B.S. in business management from Saint John’s University in 1995.
The Deputy Project Director of NYC Community Cleanup is Benjamin Smith. Currently, in addition to serving as the Deputy Director of Cleanup, he is also the coordinator of the Brownsville Justice Corps, a new program in partnership with the New York City Department of Probation. Mr. Smith joined the Center in 2003 as a development associate and from 2005-2009, he worked as a coordinator of intake, operations, and planning at Bronx Community Solutions, a project of the Center for Court Innovation which seeks to take community court principles to scale in a traditional centralized court. He received his B.A. in history from Haverford College in 2001 and his M.P.A. from Baruch College in 2010.
PRESS
West Side Highway graffiti removed
August 16, 2011
NYC Community Cleanup removes graffiti from the West Side Highway.
Cleanup at Woodside Plot
August 5, 2011
This article highlights the worked done by NYC Community Cleanup by Moore-Jackson cemetery.
NYC Community Cleanup Partners with Long Island Rail Road to Remove Graffiti in Jamaica, Queens
December 13, 2010
This video produced by the Long Island Rail Road appears on their You Tube page and is also played on monitors in waiting rooms at LIRR stations.
LIRR cleans graffiti on Queens bridges
December 2, 2010
This article from yournabe.com profiles our graffiti cleanup event with the Long Island Rail Road.
November 30, 2010
NYC Community Cleanup is partnering with the Long Island Rail Road to cleanup graffiti on LIRR property in and around Jamaica, Queens. This newspaper article profiles our partnership and an event we held on November 22 to highlight our work.
Read more here.
NYC Community Cleanup Partners with Long Island Rail Road to Remove Graffiti
November 24, 2010
This broadcast highlights the graffiti cleanup partnership between Long Island Rail Road and NYC Community Cleanup.
Making His Mark on the Neighborhood
November 10, 2010
This article in the West Side Spirit profiles the anti-graffiti efforts of Officer David Echevaria. Officer Echevaria specially highlights the enormous assistance provided by Manhattan Borough Manager Anthony Vargas and his crew.
Van Bramer helps clean up Woodside
November 2, 2010
This article in the Queens Courier features efforts by NYC Community Cleanup, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, Queens Community Board 2, and more than 60 volunteers to beautify an area in Woodside.
Additional coverage in the Woodside Herald.
In Community Service, Celebrity Justice Means the Same Dirty Work
September 1, 2010
A New York Times piece on Caroline Giuliani and other celebrities assigned to community service mentions a number of Center for Court Innovation projects, including NYC Community Cleanup and Bronx Community Solutions. The article provides a good overview of the City's system for court-mandated community service.
Java Street Beat: Cleaning Up the Street End
August 19, 2010
On August 14, NYC Community Cleanup came together with community members, council member Steven Levin and his staff, the Department of Sanitation, John Jay students, friends and family, a volunteer artist, the Parks Department, and the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, to give one block, Java Street between West Street and the East River, a complete "make over." We removed trash and weeds, turned soil, spread mulch, painted over graffiti, and painted a "NYC Camo" mural that uses the outline of each of the five boroughs. A "pop-up park" is planned for the waterfront at the end of the block.
Queens Ledger Highlights Kickoff of NYC Community Cleanup
November 24, 2009
The "On The Record" section of the Queens Ledger sat down with Borough Manager Manuel Lariño to discuss the kickoff of NYC Community Cleanup's operations.
Bushwick Inlet Public Sidewalk Gets NYC Community Cleanup
NYC Community Cleanup has been working with several local community groups to cleanup and maintain areas of the Greenpoint waterfront. The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park gave us a big thank you on their new website.