Greenfield Partners With Doe Fund To Clean Up Borough Park And Midwood Streets

Councilman David Greenfield announced at a press conference Thursday that his office is partnering with the Doe Fund — a non-profit that provides homeless people with transitional work and housing —  to get dozens of streets in Borough Park and Midwood cleaned up for summer.

The Doe Fund — or Men in Blue, as they are known — will clean 13th Avenue between 44th Street and 54th Street, 16th Avenue between 44th Street and 56th Street, Avenue M between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway, Kings Highway between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway, and Coney Island Avenue between Avenue M and Kings Highway, for five days a week.

“I am thrilled that this community clean-up program is now in full force,” said Greenfield. “As a Councilman, one of my most important focuses is in quality of life. Streets in our community are dirtier than ever. With this investment we are already seeing noticeably cleaner streets. The Doe Fund’s incredible impact is twofold: beautifying our streets while also helping reduce unemployment.”

The councilman has designated $100,000 for the project.

Doe Fund founder George McDonald lauded the program at yesterday’s press conference.

“We offer a pathway. We put long-term unemployed people to work. People with barriers. Let’s face it, our economy has shifted, so people need to be retrained and they can’t live if we don’t have transitional employment. So New York City in my humble opinion should thank the heavens for people like Councilman Greenfield,” he said.

Greenfield is behind the city-wide effort known as NYC Cleanup, securing more than $3.5 million for the City Council’s 51 members to promote cleaner streets in their respective districts. Each member is allocated funding to distribute to the organization of their choice to provide cleaning services.

Last year, the councilman funded a similar initiative, targeting the commercial strips of 13th, 16th, and 18th Avenues in Borough Park with a pilot program that was run by Midwood Development Corp’s Project Sweep.