Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch Puts 'Take Pride in Your Back Side' into Gear

By Joan Hadac
Editor and Publisher
Southwest Chicago Post

Just as they did two years ago, when they helped a neighbor in need:

http://www.swchicagopost.com/2012/08/grnw-good-neighbor-program-building.html

...members of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch are

once again leading by example and showing us all the best way to fight blight: not by jumping on a keyboard and complaining in a Facebook group, not by calling 311 or an aldermanic office to demand that government solve a problem, but by rolling up our sleeves and doing it ourselves.

While most Garfield Ridge residents relaxed on Sunday morning, a crew of more than a dozen GRNW volunteers--without a doubt some of the very best men and women in the neighborhood (or any neighborhood anywhere)--gathered at the north end of an alley at 58th Street, between New England and Newcastle, and worked in the heat and humidity to remove weeds, overgrown tree branches and more from the public way.

Why?

To put their words into action, do a good deed, and hopefully

inspire others via their new "Take Pride in Your Back Side" campaign.

Here's how it goes: walk up and down the streets of Garfield Ridge and you'll see some of the best maintained homes, lawns and gardens in the city. Walk up and down the alleys, however, and you might think you're no longer in the neighborhood. Too many alleys are overgrown with weeds and scarred with debris that does not get picked up promptly.

The silent message that such neglect sends to burglars, taggers, gangbangers and others is, "We don't care that much about the back side of our property. Why should you?" 

Granted, some people's property looks bad for a reason: the

elderly, the infirm, and a few others have difficulty keeping up. But the vast majority of us can and should do a better job of maintaining the back side of our property.

And that means doing it yourself, hiring someone else (like a local teen), or if you can't afford it, asking family, friends or neighbors to help. Please don't call

the GRNW. While they are great folks, they are not a chore service or a crew for hire.

So anyway, thank you to the men and women of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch. May your actions inspire others to do a better job of maintaining property and building a better community.

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