SYRACUSE -- There's a new initiative called Pride in Syracuse. It's an effort that is bringing businesses and neighbors together to clean up the streets of Syracuse.
Volunteers were out Saturday in Syracuse's near west side picking up trash. They will be doing this once a month. The effort is organized by area businesses.
"One of the things that we know is that if you're trying to attract employees or people trying to move to the area, having really dirty city streets and a wrecked environment doesn't really help us," says Ed Griffin, owner of Fleet Feet Sports. "What we're doing is the start of helping our economy by cleaning up the streets, making it more habitable for people that might want to move here."
Workers at O'Brien and Gere are among the volunteers taking part. The company just moved downtown about a year ago. Senior Manager Dot Hall says volunteers are trying to help build a community and change a mindset.
"The first phase, our is goal is to help people change culture," Hall said. "It's really to help them to understand that litter sends a message and to stop doing it really and to stop pointing fingers that is the city's responsibility to pick up litter or the county's responsibility. It's all of our responsibility to start by not doing it."
Hall says the long term goal of the clean up effort is to attract more people to work, live and spend time in downtown Syracuse.
