It Takes A Lot

My co-worker and I weren’t expecting much—hopefully just 20 minutes of clean up on a tenth of an acre vacant lot on the lower eastside Erie. But it didn’t take long to realize that it was going to take a lot of work.

The weeds were tall, tangled, and filled with trash. Willie had been there to mow 2 weeks prior but our rainy spring made it a taller task than we first thought. As we began to cut back the weeds and clear the debris, we pulled out beer bottles, candy wrappers, and crushed plastic water bottles. There were children’s shoes. A dog collar (that we had to fish out of the blades of our mower). A mix of litter and debris. Each item was left behind on a lot that no one saw any reason to care for.

Not all these items were random. They felt personal. Like the fragments of a life recently uprooted- a crib, a bag of clothes, dishware, and silverware. I started to wonder—was this the aftermath of an eviction? Did a family, just a few doors down, lose their home? Was this space now holding pieces of someone’s life that had nowhere else to go?

In that moment, it became clear: this wasn’t just about cutting grass or picking up trash. This lot was telling a story—a story about housing insecurity, disinvestment of neighborhoods, and the silent struggles playing out in neighborhoods across Erie.

What I saw in that space reflected something deeper: the interconnected crises shaping our community.

The environmental crisis—vacant lots left to fill with litter and trash.

The youth poverty crisis—young people growing up in neighborhoods with too few safe places to gather and grow.

The housing crisis—families facing eviction, displacement, or substandard living conditions and leaving their belongings behind on an overgrown lot next door.

And, perhaps at the root of it all, a crisis of care—where entire blocks have been overlooked for so long that neglect starts to feel normal and expected.

But crisis isn’t the entire story.

As we cleared the space, a neighbor stopped by in his car. “No one ever cares about this lot. Thanks for taking care of it.” Another day when we were out cleaning up a different lot, a next door neighbor offered water. Another shared a story about how the lot we were mowing used to be a garden years ago and she wished it could be again. Another time, a few kids wandered over and asked if they could help us clean up. 

This is the heart of Groundwork as a movement: the idea that people shape places, and in turn, places shape people.

If we as community members really care for our neighborhood spaces, how will we show up differently for each other? If we really care for each other, how will we show up differently for our land and our neighborhoods?

Groundwork is more than just urban farms or tree planting or landscaping. It’s care. It’s attention. It’s the belief that even the most forgotten, uncared-for lot holds potential, and that healing a place and its land can be part of healing a community. It’s what happens when we turn vacant lots into gathering places, gardens, or youth project sites. It’s how we build belonging—one plot, one project, one neighbor at a time.

The truth is, it takes a lot.

It takes time. It takes listening. It takes showing up, again and again. It takes people willing to care.

But Erie is full of people who care about our city. We’ve met them. And we are employing them this summer.

Our 25 Green Teamers begin work with us in one week. They will help to care for over 15 acres of land across the city of Erie. They will grow produce for Pay-What-You-Can Markets at 4th Street Farm and multiple school gardens. They will create beauty where there was once trash and weeds. But our hope is that our Green Team will also grow connections and care for a city that desperately needs us to care for it.

This is Erie’s moment to build a Greener Future together. But it will take a lot.

Our federal government is divesting from this work: over $600,000 is on the line in federal funding terminations for Groundwork Erie and our city’s youth.  But we know our community needs this work now more than ever. 

Sponsor a Green Teamer today.

A $200 donation employs a Green Teamer for one week of caring for the people and places of our city. 

Learn more here: https://www.groundworkerie.org/support

Next
Next

Groundwork Erie Welcomes New Executive Director