Local activists clean up streets of Guadalupe
Jeff Moses
“Between 15 to 20 people come out every week,” said Ashley Casey about the Sunday afternoon Guadalupe clean streets campaign.
Since Dec. 17, a group of Occupy Phoenix activists have been meeting up at Our Lady of Guadalupe church and dispersing throughout the town to clear the parks, lots and streets of garbage and debris.
“It (the first day) was raining and cold. It rained harder when we started to see if our passion was there,” said Occupier Brian Tuttle.
“But we stuck through that and as soon as we stopped cleaning up it stopped raining. It was kind of weird. it was a test to see if we really wanted to do this and we persevered through that” said Tuttle.
Tuttle is the campaigns and his brianchaild has garnered national recognition within the movement.
Though the first day of the Cleanup Guadalupe Campaign was Dec. 17, the idea was born two week earlier at a Guadalupe town hall meeting.
Tuttle had been talking to other Occupiers about ways to positively boost the image of Occupy Phoenix to communities.
“We were just spinning our wheels, and not really getting anywhere” he said.
“We came up with cleaning some streets, but we didn’t know what streets to start with, where to go it was just an idea.”
Tuttle’s question of where start was answered at a packed Guadalupe town hall meeting about Sheriff Joe, “this girl gets on the podium, and you could really feel the passion in her voice when she spoke.
She looked around the room at three or four people from her local community, and that she wasn’t at the meeting for Sheriff Joe then she pleaded to the board ‘when are you going to clean the streets? when are you going to cleanup Guadalupe?'”
The speech “struck a chord with me,” said Tuttle “it was like a calling, so then we knew exactly where we were going (to start the campaign).
“So after the meeting I went up to her, her name is Sandra, and I told her we would be right out here, not a PR stunt.
“It was just something we wanted to do, and so she gave us a location to meet and this is the sixth time we have come out I believe,” added Tuttle.
Sandra turned out to be more than just a concerned community member. She is the daughter State Rep. Sally Anne Gonzalez of Tucson and her father is Luis Gonzalez of the Intertribal Council of Arizona representing the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
With the help of the Gonzalez family the campaign was able to organize its biggest cleanup on Jan. 8, and have been doing it weekly ever since.
On Jan. 15, the Gonzalez’s set up a barbecue at Beihn Park to thank the occupiers for putting so much effort into cleaning up the streets of their community but the cleanup crew wouldn’t eat until they cleared the park of trash, “so I didn’t feel bad eating the carne” said Tuttle.
“It’s my home community” said Rep. Gonzalez “I have pride in my community, although I represent Tucson I’m from Guadalupe and I need to promote that with my kids and my grand kids, that they need to take pride in their community and do community service as well.”
The Guadalupe clean up has put out a national call to action in hopes other occupations will follow their lead help keep their communities clean “it’ll be cool,” said Tuttle. “To have little clean spots all over the country.”
