The morning after most home football games, East Lansing is comparable to a party war zone -— streets filled with broken glass, lawns littered with red solo cups and trash scattered throughout the city.
“If we don’t make sure the trash gets cleaned up, the town looks like a war zone,” Officer Todd Quick of the East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD, said.
On Sunday morning, trash-littered streets and yards also brought together students from MSU and East Lansing community members to clean up the city in an event hosted by the Community Relations Coalition, or CRC.
About 20 volunteers, including East Lansing officials and students, wore plastic gloves and carried trash bags throughout the local neighborhoods, picking up trash left over from Saturday’s parties and tailgates. They walked down Park Lane, Elizabeth Street and Grove Street, among other roads close to downtown where local residents and students mix residencies. They picked up sandwich wrappers, shattered bottles, plastic cups and other garbage.
“The CRC was founded in response to a lot of destruction on the part of students, and we’re continually doing things to make sure this never happens again,” said Elinor Landess, graduate student and intern coordinator for CRC.
“We’re trying to make sure the city is a positive place for both students and permanent residents to live; having trash on the sidewalk is something that contributes to a negative environment.”
The CRC, an organization made up of MSU students and East Lansing residents to improve student-resident relations, hosted its first community cleanup of the fall semester on Sunday morning.
Computer science sophomore Scott Rucinski attended the event because he thinks it is important for students and residents to help the city, he said, adding that community service always has been important to him.
“It shows that as a community, we can come together and just do good things,” Rucinski said.
While cleaning up the city, some volunteers reached out to residents, reminding them to pick up trash.
East Lansing Mayor Diane Goddeeris said she always tries to talk to residents while she is cleaning to let people know that there are volunteers to clean up their community.
Goddeeris attended the cleanups last year too, and she usually brings her family to the event.
The cleanup is especially important when there are events going on in the city the following day, she said.
“I wish we didn’t have to have (the cleanup),” Goddeeris said. “I wish everyone just had that responsibility. But sometimes people just need a little incentive to have others come out here and make the city look nice.”
Police also encourage residents to clean up their trash after hosting parties, in hopes that litter will become less of an issue after game days.
Quick said when police go out to patrol on game days, they tell students to pick up their trash and inform them about the Parking and Code Enforcement, or PACE, officers, who enforce the city’s Party Litter Ordinance.
The Party Litter Ordinance allows PACE officers to issue tickets to homes with trash in their lawns without having to warn the tenants.
The East Lansing Police is scheduled to release a report with the number of party litter warnings issued over the weekend on Monday.
“Even (Saturday) when we were out, we told them ourselves, you might want to start cleaning this up now because PACE is going to be out there soon looking for these,” Quick said.
“Typically, the residents will clean up right on the spot.”
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