Yakima Cleaning Up Thanks To Clean City Program

Yakima is a cleaner city thanks to the work of the Yakima Clean City Program. During the third quarter of the year the community members and city staff cleaned and covered 726  incidents of graffiti, cleared more than 47 tons of garbage and removed 286 grocery carts from Yakima city streets.

The program was started because there was so much garbage

The program was started in 2019 as a way to get the community involved in helping keep Yakima clean. City officials say the main objectives to the program are to;

Address visual blight (trash, graffiti, dangerous building, abandoned vehicles, etc.)
Address unscheduled collection of waste and litter from the City’s public areas/thoroughfares
Expedite the clean-up of such illegal dumps
Clean up homeless encampments
Support Yakima Police Department officers in unlawful camping enforcement
Provide coordination with neighborhoods for annual clean-up events
Create educational components
Engage with community partners and volunteers

A lot of garbage and graffiti was cleaned last year as well

City officials say they cleaned up a lot of trash and graffiti last year as well.
They say incidents of graffiti were sharply reduced in 2021 by 52.3 percent in comparison to 2020. Public Works Director Scott Schafer it's "directly attributed to the efforts of community members, residents and staff placing an emphasis on the rapid removal of graffiti.”
Clean City, under the direction of the City’s Public Works Division, coordinates the efforts of several City departments and community partners. They including the city public works and the streets and traffic division among other departments including Yakima Police.