MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After what felt like years of illegal dumping, a Parkway Village pastor is getting a look at a much needed change.
“It’s 1000% better than what it was,” said John W. Brown III, Oakville MB Church Pastor.
For close to a decade, people have illegally dumped trash behind Oakville Missionary Baptist Church, Brown said.
More than a month ago, the lot was filled with things like mattresses, garbage bags, and hundreds of tires. Local activist Patricia Rodgers called it the worst case of illegal dumping she had ever seen.
“You couldn’t even see the fence over there,” said Brown, “Now we can see what it all looks like rather than looking over a mountain of tires.”
Community advocates demanded city crews do more to clean up the mess and many others like it. Local leaders like City Council Member Ford Canale took this to heart and began looking for solutions.
“It seems like in the past 12 to 15 months it’s gotten much worse,” said Canale, “Especially on areas and streets that are not very well lit.”
17 new positions have been created at the Memphis Public Works Department, helping more illegal dumping sites get cleaned up sooner. The city also invested in new equipment like rover trucks and new cameras to catch and charge illegal dumpers in the act.
“We have to take them into account too, we got to clean that up and figure out how to keep this on a regular rotation so that our city goes back to what it once was, which is one of the cleanest cities in the United States,” said Canale.
Brown said removing illegal dumping does more than just beautify the neighborhood, it also improves the property values of surrounding homes.
“They got a myriad of stuff to deal with, but to deal with the blight and decrease in property value to boot, this is a step in the right direction,” said Brown.
According to Ford, the Memphis City Council is hoping to buy additional cameras in its next budget to place in additional illegal dumping hotspots.