A Grant Hill man has spent his last few Saturdays cleaning up his neighborhood with the help of several thousands of dollars of his own money.
Carlos Gutierrez, a real estate agent, has battled trash near his home every weekend for more the last two months.
Gutierrez owns property one mile east of downtown and said he noticed a couple of years ago how people dumped all kinds of trash there.
“A lot of people were dumping all kinds of different industrial – drywall, concrete, bags of trash, etcetera,” Gutierrez told NBC 7.
With permission from the city – and $10,000 of his own money – he began to clean up the area.
"You have to be the promoter and the one to push those people with your pocketbook and get down deep and put your time and energy and effort to be able to help these neighborhoods and these people to see that,” Gutierrez said.
He calls his project the Golden Hill/ Grant Hill/ Sherman Heights Community Street Beautification program.
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Gutierrez has hired workers to help him each Saturday, and while he is self-funded, the city has donated dumpsters and other things to help with the cleanup.
He hopes to eventually extend his cleanup program to the other neighborhoods in Southeast San Diego.
