Sprucing up the neighborhood

For now, the weather is holding in New York City, and the Yankees may just get to play that first game at the new stadium in a few hours after all. Meanwhile, City Room, the Metro-focused New York Times blog, checked in with an interesting piece on the efforts to cleanup the neighborhood before the stadium opens today.

Here’s how Matthew Warren described it:

Inside the stadium, workers cleaned and polished metal railings. Outside, landscapers planted bushes and trees. City park workers picked up trash, painted benches and spread grass seed in nearby parks. Power washers were sent out to remove graffiti from neighboring buildings. Workers put down lines of fresh white paint on the crosswalks, and even a nearby McDonald’s was undergoing renovation.

“Now for opening day, there’s a little bit more of a rush to get things clean,” said a parks department worker enrolled in a job training program, who was painting park benches green at Macombs Dam Park. “I’m not sure when the last time they were painted was.”

While it’s a good idea for the South Bronx to put its best face forward for the debut of the new home of the Yankees, it shouldn’t take a new stadium for the city to clean up a dirty neighborhood. Mike and I are heading up to the Bronx tomorrow afternoon. We’ll have a full report and lots of pictures after the game then.