 Our 20-person summer Clean Team was launched in 2007, revolutionizing the cleanliness of our downtown. The nine year-round staff, and 11 additional seasonal members, pick up litter, water flowers, remove graffiti, remove posters, and polish downtown’s sidewalks every day. Two new sidewalk machines sweep and wash downtown, and in the winter two snow plows clear major sidewalks of ice and light snow.
- The City and Siloam Mission’s Mission: Off the Streets Team (MOST) add to the clean-and-green efforts.
- Portage and Graham avenues are sidewalk vacuumed every weekday morning before 9am
- The BIZ picks up over 5,000 bags of litter every year
- The BIZ offers downtown businesses free pressure washing during the summer
Notice any litter, graffiti or cleanliness issues downtown? Let us know! Call 958-4640.
New Litter Awareness Campaign launches
New for Summer 2009
New in the summer of 2009, the BIZ is now cleaning downtown bus shelters daily. Fifteen new waste receptacles were also installed throughout downtown in spring 2009 by the City.
The BIZ Clean Team: Promotions & Maintenance Crews
 There are two branches of Clean Team members: those dressed in dark green who look after maintenance (year round) and those dressed in bright green who help promote a clean and friendly downtown (summer). This latter group, the Clean Team Promotions crew puts four ambassadors on downtown's streets from May to August. The Promo crew do everything from talking to businesses about how they can keep their properties clean and attractive, to passing out freezies and brochures at noon-hour Out to Lunch concerts.
Graffiti Removal
Two Clean Team members are dedicated to fighting graffiti year round in our downtown. They pressure wash buildings and match paint samples to remove tags and keep downtown looking great. With these staff, the BIZ is able to maintain a positive impression of downtown Winnipeg.
The BIZ recognizes that a lot of graffiti and litter lead to perceptions that an area is not safe. The mere presence of graffiti and litter often lead to more graffiti and litter, which encourages vandalism and even crime, because it sends a message that an area is not well-cared for and no one is looking after the neighbourhood. Through our Clean Team members and many programs, the BIZ sends the message that we are taking care of our downtown.
Got Graffiti? Let us know: 958-4640.
Anti-cigarette butt litter campaign
The BIZ launched an anti-cigarette butt litter campaign to encourage smokers to butt out in newly installed cigarette butt receptacles. The BIZ installed 27 cigarette butt receptacles at strategic locations and put out signage to show the effects of cigarette litter, with the headline “BIZ crews pick up 125 cigarette butts off each block of downtown every day. That’s over 45,000 a year! Just imagine if we didn’t…” According to Take Pride Winnipeg!, up to 28% of litter is cigarette butts.
Mission: Off the Streets Team
The Mission: Off the Streets Team (MOST), a partnership between the BIZ and Siloam Mission, helps fight litter, with six members covering 591 kilometres on the street in 2007. The program provides work experience to homeless people, who take pride in making downtown clean and are transitioned into a healthier environment. Business and community members joined in the cleaning efforts during the BIZ’s second annual Spring Clean-up event.
- MOST members logged 2,991 hours picking up litter and cleaning downtown in 2007
 Making downtown not only clean but also beautiful
Other BIZ image programs also contribute to an interesting and beautiful urban environment, including 102 hanging flower baskets along Portage Avenue, art bike racks on Broadway, street banners, large scale photos in walkway windows overlooking Portage, and more.
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The Clean Team program includes:
- 2-person bus shelter cleaning crew
- 5-person weekend summer cleaning crew
- 2-person evening shift litter (daily)
- 2-person dedicated graffiti removal team
- 2-person flower watering team
- 2-person sidewalk sweeper team (summer) / sidewalk snow removal team (winter)
- 4-person promotions crew (summer)
- 1 Clean Team Supervisor and 1 Maintenance Coordinator
- Two new deluxe sidewalk scrubbers
- Two new snow plows/sweepers (launched in March 2007)
- Watering carts and graffiti removal carts
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