A new Jacksonville alderman is leading the charge for ideas to help clean up the city. New Ward 1 Alderman, Eren White-Williams, is hoping a citywide Yard Sale will help bring people to Jacksonville and help the city with efforts to clean up the environment.
Williams details the citywide yard sale event.“Right now, we’re going to have a citywide yard sale in Jacksonville. It will be the first annual event. As of now, I’m pushing 50 different addresses, so it’s going to be pretty big. It’s going to be May 31st, which is a Friday. Then June 1st and June 2nd. The weekend after that is the citywide clean up so whatever people don’t sell, maybe they can donate it or throw it away.”
Williams hopes that it will be more than just a weekend citywide yard sale. “With the yard sale, I’m trying to get tons of people from out of town to come to Jacksonville. I’m hoping they might stay a night or two or at least shop with our local businesses. Hopefully it will be a good annual event for the city.”
In recent memory, Jacksonville used to hold an event at Nichols Park for a city yard sale. However, this particular yard sale will span both Jacksonville and South Jacksonville for the entire weekend. Williams gives more details on how residents can be involved. “People can pretty much set their own hours. The generic hours are that I have are 7AM-4PM on all three days of the event.” Williams said that people can have their sale on one, two or all days during the citywide event. Williams hopes that the city yard sale will inspire citywide clean-up efforts so that places like Morton Avenue and side streets won’t accumulate trash.
Williams also hopes that the city yard sale will help accumulate some revenue with local businesses to possibly pay for another pillar of her Ward 1 campaign. Williams hopes that the city council can begin to look at ways to upgrade the city’s sidewalks on the Northeast side of the city. Williams says its not just an appearance issue.
“I would like to see some of our sidewalks looking a little better. On my side of town, Ward 1, there are people just walking in the roads everywhere. It’s because it’s really hard to walk on the sidewalks. When I went out campaigning, it was even difficult for me. I have back and knee issues. Anybody else who has it worse than I do, I just can’t imagine how they can get around on foot or otherwise.”
Williams hopes that the full city schedule of events for the weekend of May 31st will coincide well with folks looking for entertainment and looking to shop. To add your name to the address list for the citywide yard sale, contact Eren White-Williams via her Facebook page messenger any time between now and May 30th.