Keeping University City Clean: A Collaborative Effort for Growth

Jul 24, 2024 | Economic Development | 1 comment

Maintaining the thoroughfares, retail, and residential areas of University City is essential for its economic development and growth. With an expansive 10 square miles in the MSD boundary and a total of 63 square miles in the trade area, which hosts over 4,700 businesses, ensuring cleanliness is a significant undertaking. So how do we tackle keeping the area clean?

Grocery carts, graffiti, and trash are just a few of the challenges we face. University City Partners has identified four key strategies to address these issues.

Operation Clean Streets

Our commitment to cleanliness is demonstrated through our contracts with two agencies. Yellowstone Landscaping maintains University Research Park, while Phoenix Landscaping focuses on several thoroughfares and target areas, including North Tryon, W.T. Harris, and the newly improved Triangle at US 29 and US 49. These contracts account for over 20% of the MSD and University Research Park budget.

Partnership with the City of Charlotte

We work closely with the City of Charlotte, particularly with Jerry Green and the Housing & Neighborhood Services department. Regular meetings help us strategize on maintaining cleanliness in University City. Council Member Renee Johnson has also been a strong advocate for our efforts.

Active Involvement from University City Partners Staff

Our staff plays an integral role in keeping the area clean. Collectively, they spend 40 hours each month canvassing the area, surveying parcels, and reporting issues. Janelle Goodrich, Director of Operations, leads these efforts with support from other staff members and UCP interns. One effective tool we’ve implemented is the use of postcards to engage private property owners before submitting potential code violations to the city.

Collaboration with UNC Charlotte

In partnership with UNC Charlotte’s Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences, we are conducting a study to understand the trash issues in University City. Led by Drs. Sandra Clinton and Youngseob Eum and a team of interns, this study will help us identify patterns of trash in our community. We are also developing tools for our community to contribute data on trash levels, materials, and photos. The findings will guide our strategies for tackling various types of trash, including shopping carts, fast food waste, and smoking-related litter.

Despite the ongoing battle against trash, we recognize the critical importance of keeping our community clean. Cleanliness influences economic development, perception, and overall quality of life. We encourage you, as ambassadors of University City, to report trash using the City of Charlotte app and to address panhandling and loitering by installing signage and reporting incidents to 911.

Together, let’s continue to keep our beautiful community clean and welcoming. —Keith Stanley

1 Comment

  1. Mr. Jack Booker

    The I-85 Southbound ramp off of Mallard Creek Church Road seems to always be littered with all kinds of trash and garbage. It is a terrible eye-sore for the community and its residents. The trash often extends on the southbound side of 85 from Mallard Creek Church Road to WT Harris Blvd. I have been a homeowner in this area for 20 years, and I had never seen the streets and roadways as littered as they have become lately. I sincerely hope that this new “clean street” initiative will help to correct this situation.


Receive Up to Date News


Receive Economic Development News


View Past Newsletters


View Post by Category


Press Releases

Meet our new intern, Haley Chilcott

Haley Chilcott is our new Marketing Communications Intern here at University City Partners. Haley is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is majoring in Communications, with a concentration in Public Relations. After graduation...

University City Partners welcomes our newest board members

  University City Partners welcomes its newest members of the UCP Board of Directors: Charlotte City Manager Marcus Smith and Michael Fung, a regional leader for Wells Fargo's Corporate Properties Group. The University City Partners Board of Directors consists of...

Response to tragic police incident and unrest

Last night our community was at the center of a tragic police incident followed by several hours of demonstration, aggressive agitation and unrest. Our neighborhoods, businesses, retail centers and institutions were impacted with activity that has left us all feeling...

Introducing our UNC Charlotte interns

University City Partners is proud to introduce our "Class of 2016" - our fall semester interns from UNC Charlotte. Seniors Hollis Maye-Keye and Cagney Reeves will help us with communications and planning - key functions for our success. We encourage you to consider...

UCP video report: Planning for our transit-powered future

University City Partners has launched a new feature - a monthly video report on how we are investing time and resources to build University City. Today's report: UCP is leading a planning effort to make the area around the future JW Clay Transit station a more...

Our 2016 Annual Report chronicles a landmark year

The dramatic changes taking place across University City can be hard to keep up with - unless you have the University City Partners annual report. Our brand new 2016 University City Partners Annual Report chronicles these changes over the past year (July 2015-June...

University City Partners welcomes new board members

University City Partners welcomes four new members to its board of directors, including two UNC Charlotte grads. Tracy Dodson with Lincoln Harris, John McAlister with Electrolux, Phil Nicholenko with TIAA and Jane Wu, founder of Carolina States Regional Center, have...

Thanks for taking our survey; we heard you!

Our recent invitation to take a brief survey about University City Partners drew more than 100 participants and many useful responses. ”The survey was like a pulse check to make sure that what we are hearing in our meetings also represents the opinions of all of the...

University City Partners adds planning & development director

Tobe Holmes has joined University City Partners as its planning and development director. Holmes, formerly with Center City Partners, will oversee all UCP planning and development initiatives. At Center City Partners, Holmes managed economic and community development...

Meet our UNC Charlotte interns

One benefit of having UNC Charlotte nearby is the amazing wealth of student interns. We landed three of the best this semester: Meredith Avant (Communications with PR concentration), Miguel Avila (Economics with innovation focus), and Charles Trowell (Architecture...