VAN NUYS : Merchants Adopting Boulevard Medians

Cleaning up the city has become an issue where more and more merchants are taking the middle of the road.

Tired of relying on the fiscally crunched city, local businesses are taking it upon themselves to target street medians for cleanup efforts as a way to enhance the community’s appearance.

“That’s the trend that’s going on,” said Flip Smith, president of the Sepulveda Boulevard Business Watch. “The city can’t afford to take care of the medians so the private citizens and businesses have to do it.”

Businesses in the 75-member watch recently adopted their block of Sepulveda Boulevard to clean up the medians and surrounding streets of trash. With a goal to have merchant-cleaning efforts on Sepulveda Boulevard from Burbank to Roscoe boulevards, Smith said his group is halfway there.

In October, Smith worked with Councilman Joel Wachs’ office, the Independent Living Center and the California Landscape Assn. to transform a eroding concrete median strip at Sepulveda and Valerio Street. The effort, which replaced weeds and trash with plants, was almost entirely covered by $20,000 in donations.

Due to the high cost of tending to the medians, the city has welcomed these efforts. Reyna Gabin, Reseda field deputy for Councilwoman Laura Chick, said that the city’s fiscal crunch has forced all extra dollars to be funneled to public safety, away from low-priority street maintenance projects such as medians’ upkeep.

Gabin hopes the next median project the community adopts are those along Sherman Way at Reseda Boulevard. She said the city will put concrete on the eroding tips of the median, but merchants are being asked to pay for the landscaping.

Frida Shemesh, president of the new Reseda Business Watch, said her group would consider helping out in median-beautifying efforts, depending on the cost. Gabin expects to make a presentation on the project to the merchant group in January.

“This is one of the things we’d like to address,” Shemesh said.

“I have a median in front of my business,” she said. “It’s very important how they look because if the area does not look clean, people will not want to shop there.”