Two Newton friends, Yigal Agam and Sarah Solomon, saw an opportunity and seized it. They noticed some time ago that the T’s D line tracks from the Highlands to Newton Center are totally littered with trash, owing mostly to the 5 bridges over the tracks.
When they learned that those tracks were going to be shut down for repairs they reached out to the T and got permission for a crew of (adult only 18+) volunteers to get access to the tracks to haul the trash out. Now they’re looking for volunteers this week to help with the cleanup. If you can spare a few hours sometime this week, sign up here. Yigal and Sarah will provide the trash bags. Any questions, just email [email protected] .
I missed the usual annual spring NewtonSERVES event this spring so I’ve just signed up for Yigal & Sarah’s DIY version. Hope to see you there
What a great idea! As one who is a compulsive-Mike-Dukakis-style trash picker-upper, this is an overwhelmingly exciting opportunity! Will sign up.
Thanks, Yigal and Sarah! This was a good project, and I’d like to see it done for other parts of the Green Line. I was one of four volunteers who worked a couple of hours this morning to complete the last segment we were allowed to work — Newton Center station to Centre Street. We collected many bags of trash, and now the site looks pretty clean.
Some amusement: We four volunteers were accompanied by four MBTA employees: two employees who stood as safety watchers and two (count ’em, two!) photographers. Yep. There was one time I saw one of those four employees pick up some trash — it was when one of the photographers picked up two pieces of trash and placed them on a retaining wall (for the foreground of an artistic shot of the volunteers)… and then left them there. 😉
Hi Bruce, I got there around 8:15 so missed the photo shoot. I will tell you that on Monday the MBTA employee who accompanied us actively worked the entire time and helped a lot. Today’s MBTA guide was very nice and at the end said he wished he could help me carry a bag of trash but in his role he was not authorized to. So, it may be the bureaucracy of the system that restricted them from helping today. We were only able to do this because of the green line shut down and it did take a lot of coordinating with them to get access. Our next beautification spot will be off of MBTA property to make the process easier. Thanks for coming today!