Clean sweep targets school routes

Austin (KXAN) - With school set to start in just a few weeks, volunteers are helping to clean up the streets where students will be walking.

More than a dozen people donated their time Thursday to the city's Safe Routes to School Program .  Their goal: to clean up the sidewalks around Blackshear Elementary on East 11th Street.

Youth leader Tony Veney found the job empowering.  "No kid should be intimidated to walk on the streets to and from his school or his church or his store," Veney said.

He motioned toward spray-painted marks on a wall, "Tags like that are meant to be signs, intimidations to be warnings to people.  It's unnecessary."

The city's Code Compliance Department put on the event.  They hope their efforts will improve the safety and quality of life for Austin children.