In early 2019, West Side resident David Malik Fleming was driving for Uber. He was taking his passenger to Winnetka on Chicago’s North Shore and, after dropping him off, popped in a piece of gum with the windows rolled down.
“Instinctively, I was going to throw the paper out, but I didn’t,” Fleming said. “I looked around and the place was just immaculate. It’s beautiful, it’s really clean. I said, ‘Oh, I better not.’”
But a week later, while he was dropping off a passenger near Douglass Park, he did the same thing, opened a piece of gum and tossed the wrapper out the window.
“It dawned on me, ‘Why did you do that?’” Fleming said. “I was more apt to do it in my own neighborhood because it was already dirty.” He added, “no one is conscious, or just doesn’t respect the area enough to keep it clean.”
Fleming said he wanted to be a part of the solution, rather than the problem. So he started Wecycle in June 2019. The organization does community cleanup, snow removal and environmental restoration services, in addition to an annual street cleaning.
On March 30, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wecycle will host its fourth annual street cleaning event, where around 100 people collect trash on three stretches of road, starting just East of Austin Boulevard at 5922 W. Division Street.
“I do always commit to this particular area, where I was born and raised, where I lived at, where I lost a lot of people from the area to crime, to gun violence, to drugs,” Fleming said.
Participants clean up both sides of the street, working their way East to Central Avenue, then South to Chicago Avenue, ending at 5840 W. Chicago Avenue. At the end of the route, Wecycle hosts a barbeque with hot dogs, burgers, a bouncy house, DJ and Easter egg hunt.
Aldermen Chris Taliaferro and Emma Mitts have supported the effort in past years and donated shovels and bags, Fleming said. Cleaning supplies are also paid for by Wecycle.
Fleming said he advertises the event to residents by posting flyers at surrounding churches and through contacts at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Austin African American Business Networking Association, Chicago Austin Chamber of Commerce, Westside Health Authority, and the National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated.
Fleming’s “lovely better half” and partner of nearly five years, Doris Freeman, works at Lawndale Christian Health Center and also advertises the event to her patients and staff.
“She’s a very big part of making this a whole success,” Fleming said of getting people involved, and to be respectful and conscious about their neighborhood.
“It gives it that curbside appeal and brings a lot of energy and positive attention,” Fleming said of Wecycle’s street cleaning efforts. “Our tagline is bringing beauty and unity back to the community by changing the view.”