Neighborhoods of Focus

Starting in 2014, the CPC has chosen a specific area of the City in which to address quality of life issues for a one to two year period. We engage community leaders and individuals who are already making a great impact in their neighborhood and provide support for more robust beautification initiatives.

2021-2022 – Esplen

Highlights coming soon!

2019-2020 – Homewood 

In the Community

In May 2019, Pittsburgh-based company Niche hosted a day of service and engagement they called "in the community." The project brought company employees directly into the Homewood neighborhood to 

The company brought together 80 volunteers to support local revitalization including garbage and dump site clean-ups, install artistic board-ups over abandoned/blighted properties, and support community garden development and data surveying.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation awarded the Clean Pittsburgh Commission with a grant to install six cameras in Homewood to assist with illegal dumping and site maintenance. Grounded Strategies, a local environmental non-profit group, also worked with the City to participate in the Vacant Lots Program to add an additional 100 lots to the list of maintained sites.

Homewood Cluster Stewards

Working with Operation Better Block (OBB) the team identified nine focus areas within the Homewood neighborhood where trash remediation was a top priority. Through training provided by OBB, participants were assigned an area, or "cluster," where leaders were provided a stipend for their time spent working to beautify their assigned areas.

After three months, program participants devoted 453 hours to removing trash from the neighborhood. Together, they filled 345 trash bags with an estimated 5,190 pounds of trash removed from public spaces.

2017-2018 – Perry Hilltop & Fineview

The CPC facilitated our second Artistic Board up Project in the City of Pittsburgh in 2017 in our Neighborhood of Focus. Artistic board-up is a neighborhood revitalization initiative that transforms vacant properties through creativity and community engagement. Boarding up these homes is the first step in making them safe, but Artistic Board up takes the process a step further by painting images of doors and windows on the boards to give the impression that the property, while abandoned, is still cared for. With the guidance of the Perry Hilltop and Fineview Citizens Councils, the CPC are focused on two commercial properties that sit in a highly-traveled area of Perry Hilltop. The properties at 2107 and 2115 Perrysville were also chosen due to their proximity to one another and because they sit in a targeted area for redevelopment in the next few years. On October 21st the CPC worked in conjunction with Perry Hilltop/Fineview Citizens Council and volunteers from the University of Pittsburgh during Pitt’s Make A Difference Day.

PRC and ACW collaborated with the City of Pittsburgh and eLoop LLC, a local E-Steward Certified electronics recycler, to host a small-scale Hard to Recycle Collection event at the Pittsburgh Project to target residents of Perry South and Fineview. 90 residents participated in the program, successfully recycling 141 televisions, computers, and monitors as well as 18 tires and 6 appliances. Multiple participants brought materials that had been illegally dumped in their neighborhoods to be responsibly recycled.

2015-2016 – Hilltop District: Allentown, Beltzhoover & Knoxville

Working with the Hilltop Alliance and Urbankind Institute, some of the highlights include:

  • Artistic board-up of 6 abandoned and blighted homes
  • Allegheny CleanWays cleared 89 dump sites and removed more than 200 tons of trash, including 1,403 tires
  • 10,658 lbs of electronics, 146 tires, and 25 appliances collected at the Hard-to-Recycle event organized by the Pennsylvania Resources Council and the Department of Public Works

2014-2015 – Hazelwood

Working with the Hazelwood Initiative and Center of Life, some of our highlights include:

  • Litter Prevention education at Youth Summer Camp
  • Installation of camera in Hazelwood Greenway to monitor illegal dumping
  • Over 14 vacant lots and 3 roadsides cleared of 50,000 pounds of debris and vegetation by CPC member organization Allegheny CleanWays
  • 6,500 pounds of electronics and 92 tires collected at neighborhood Hard to Recycle Collection organized by CPC member organization the Pennsylvania Resources Council

Contact Us

cleanpittsburghcommission@gmail.com

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last updated: 11/04/2026

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