Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
‘Rat City’ no more? A new street cleaning program launches in Allston
Allston Village Main Streets and Project Place teamed up to bring cleaner streets – and 'transformative change' – to the neighborhood.
On a sunny Thursday morning in Allston, as commuters bustled past the eclectic storefronts along Harvard Avenue, a small team of street sweepers pushed their brooms and dust pans with quiet purpose. They weren’t city employees. They were clients of Project Place, a non-profit which gives formerly unhoused or incarcerated individuals a chance to rebuild their lives.
Thanks to a new partnership between Allston Village Main Streets (AVMS) and the Clean Corners program at Project Place, Allston isn’t just getting cleaner – it’s also becoming a place where lives are rebuilt on the sidewalk, one sweep at a time.
“For as long as I’ve been in this role – and even before, just as someone hanging out in Allston – the number one concern I’ve heard is about trash and graffiti,” AVMS executive director Alex Cornacchini said. “They’re two sides of a similar coin.”
Advertisement:
Cornacchini began leading AVMS in 2019 and has long dreamed of a more beautiful, welcoming Allston — a neighborhood which has also been dubbed “Rat City.”
“Beautification is core to our mission,” he said. “The desire to work with Project Place came from that constant neighborhood feedback. People want cleaner streets. And the opportunity to make this happen came from the City of Boston.”
The partnership was made possible through city beautification grants distributed to Main Streets districts across Boston. For AVMS, this meant enough funding to launch a twice-weekly street-cleaning program that will last for two years. The Clean Corners crew will cover over 82,500 square feet of sidewalk on Monday and Thursday mornings, impacting more than 300 storefronts and residential buildings across the district.
Their route begins near Commonwealth Avenue and Harvard Avenue, extending up Brighton Avenue, Cambridge Street, and back down Harvard – a high-traffic area well-known to residents, students, and small business owners alike.
Advertisement:
“We want to make sure Allston looks fresh and welcoming, especially on Monday mornings after the weekend crowd, and again on Thursday to prep for the next one,” Cornacchini said.
Who’s behind the street cleaning effort in Allston?
Project Place, a South End-based nonprofit founded in 1967, approaches homelessness with a different toolkit: job training and transitional employment.
“We believe employment is one of the most critical tools to permanently disrupt the cycle of homelessness and poverty,” Aaryn Manning, the organization’s executive director, told Boston.com.
The Clean Corners program offers clients – many of whom have experienced homelessness, incarceration, or addiction – a paid position where they gain tangible work experience, soft skills, and a supportive network.
“The transitional employment allows our clients to be able to speak to current work experience, both the hard skills and the soft skills that they’re demonstrating on the job, all while earning a paycheck, which provides them with a level of financial stability while they’re working to move into permanent employment,” Manning said. Project Place stays in touch with their clients for two years after they exit the program to make sure they are on track to achieve their goals.
“We know that true transformative change is going to take time,” she added.
How street sweeping creates second chances—and transforms communities
Project Place vans roll out early from their South End headquarters, loaded with rolling bins, dustpans, and team members who gather as a unit.
Advertisement:
The Clean Corners crew operates like a small business. Site supervisors, like Ivan Rodriguez and Larry Brewster, lead the team through the streets of Allston, setting expectations and providing on-the-job feedback. But they’re not just managers – they’re also mentors and teammates.
“We don’t have them do anything we wouldn’t do,” Rodriguez said. “We’re hands-on.” Brewster added, “We’ve developed friendships so close that sometimes clients don’t want to leave. But we encourage them to find something better — because there is.”
The duo remembers clients from years ago, and fondly lists clients who have “made it”: There’s Rosa, who now owns her own restaurant in Chelsea. Randy who owns a house. George who worked at Project Place for eight years. The list goes on.
For Brewster, who has seen many walk the path to stability, the work is deeply personal.
“I see what people have been through. I’ve been through a little bit myself,” he said. “It’s about love, giving back, and sharing. People leave happy and that makes me happy.”
Among the crew sweeping Allston’s streets is Sylvester, a Project Place client. Beaming with a smile, he shared, in a lilty Jamaican patois, “I’m celebrating my 32nd birthday today – the second time around.” At 64, Sylvester is finding his second chance in honest work and a welcoming team.
Advertisement:
That joy is contagious. Louie Williams, Project Place’s director of sales who joined in on the street sweeping, said it best: “We get to do the good work. We get to experience people who are working so hard to make changes.”
Even with the program in its infancy in Allston, the response from the neighborhood has already been overwhelmingly positive – and a long time coming.
“It’s been five years of trying to work out additional trash cans with the city or more frequent pickups from the city’s Department of Public Works department (they don’t really have the resources for that). So I had to look for grant funding and look for a partner to do private street cleaning, and Project Place was a perfect partner,” Cornacchini said.
But the clock is ticking. Grant funding runs for two years, and AVMS is already pursuing additional grants and fundraising to keep the program alive.
“I just know that after two years, everybody from business owners to residents and visitors are going to get used to cleaner streets. Hopefully, [the program] doesn’t end,” he added.
In Allston, where music venues share blocks with ramen shops and vintage stores, where students and families crisscross the same cracked sidewalks, change has always been a constant. But now, thanks to a community determined to beautify itself and an organization devoted to rebuilding lives, that change is grounded in purpose, pride, and a whole lot of elbow grease.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com