The City of Dallas announced this week that it established a strategic partnership with a nonprofit dedicated to litter prevention, recycling, and beautification.
An affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful, Keep Dallas Beautiful’s (KDB) mission is “centered on embracing, educating, and encouraging neighborhoods to help make Dallas a cleaner city,” according to a press release.
The collaboration will allow the City to leverage KDB resources from its network.
“It’s another tool for our department to utilize for our residents as we strive to create a cleaner Dallas. Our team will continue to work with our neighbors, businesses, [and] communities to reach this goal through our partnership with Keep Dallas Beautiful,” said Christopher Christian, director of Code Compliance Services.
KDB aims to educate and engage residents on the importance of keeping the community clean. The organization has multiple programs to promote the notion, including “Love your Block,” “Adopt-A-Spot,” and “Community Clean Trash-Off.”
Last year, KDB and Dallas Code Compliance purportedly worked with over 2,600 residents to collect and dispose of more than 275,000 pounds of trash via Community Clean Trash-Off events.
KDB has also collaborated with over 3,000 individuals from local neighborhoods, businesses, and community members through more than 70 volunteer events, contributing a total of over 10,000 service hours.
Thus far in March, the City of Dallas has found 1,698 violations of litter on private property, alleys, and parkways, according to the Dallas Code Compliance performance dashboard. There have been 387 violations of litter on vacant lots and commercial properties.
In 2023, there were over 35,000 offenses related to litter and junk, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
That year, ETC Institute administered a community survey on behalf of the City of Dallas.
“The purpose of the survey was to assess citizen satisfaction with the delivery of major city services, to help improve the quality of city services and to determine priorities for the community,” the executive summary reads.
Perceptions of problems were taken from survey participants who rated different issues on a four-point scale, with a score of four being “not a problem” and a score of one being a “major problem.”
Litter ranked No.6 among “Perceptions of Problems in the City of Dallas,” with 34% of participants considering litter a major problem. The top five problems were homelessness (75%), crime (61%), drugs (60%), infrastructure/streets (55%), and aggressive solicitation/panhandling (45%).
According to the survey, 44% of participants found street cleaning to be poor.
Throughout the city, there are several volunteer groups that are working to keep the city clean. Ashford Inc. partnered with the Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA) to launch “Adopt-a-Block” back in October. Ashford adopted the area between Lemmon Avenue and Cedar Springs Boulevard, bounded by Oak Lawn to the east and the Dallas North Tollway to the west.
Louis Darrouzet, CEO of MCBA, previously told The Dallas Express the idea was inspired by Texas’ familiar “Adopt-a-Highway” program.
A Better Dallas is another organization that helps beautify the city through service projects and political activism, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The group goes out on the second Saturday of each month to clean up a portion of White Rock Lake.
To keep up with KDB events and clean-up days, visit the organization’s website.
