Many of Florida’s residents took some time out of their Easter weekend to participate in a clean-up campaign arranged by Ward 70’s councillor, Caleb Finn.
The clean-up campaign included litter picking, removing of overgrown vegetation and grass-cutting on and around the 9th Avenue bridge. “The idea behind the clean-up is to make the bridge more user friendly for pedestrians and improve the image of our community,” Caleb said.
He added that community members needed to meet the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) halfway to ensure their neighbourhood remained beautiful. “The reality is that the city has expanded in leaps and bounds during the past number of years and service delivery has fallen behind. This has created a massive backlog and it will take time for the city to fully catch up,” he said.
The day’s activities were fully supported by residents from Florida and surrounding areas, who took up their lawnmowers, spades, wheelbarrows and plastic bags, and worked together to clean up the designated area. The community members were also joined by the Gauteng Member of the Provincial Legislature, John Moodey, who was not afraid to set an example by taking a shovel in hand and removing some of the overgrown vegetation. “If people complained less and worked together more, they would see the change they want. Communities that work together, grow together and campaigns like these create a sense of ownership and neighbourliness, leading to neighbours watching out for each other. More than 22 years of neglect cannot be reversed in just six months, but Florida residents are blessed with a councillor like Caleb, who is always willing to work with them to bring about change,” he said.
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Caleb said that this campaign was the start of many .”We want to do this at least three times a month in areas where maintenance is badly needed. We have not finalised all the arrangements yet, but will keep the community updated,” he said.
The activities included grass-cutting, physical removal of overgrown vegetation and litter picking on and around the bridge, as well as the road linking 9th Avenue to Ruth Street. “We just need to get Pikitup to clean up the illegal dumping on Ruth Street in order for grass-cutting to be done, which will be completed by the end of this week. I want to thank everyone who assisted with this initiative, including the Bowman family, Workforce One companies, Florida CPF Sector 2, Florida Blockwatch and Flomotion. But, most importantly, thank you to the residents – you are the true heroes, you are always prepared to step up and help. With residents like this, Florida can only become better,” Caleb concluded.
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