CLEVELAND, OH — Fall is here, and the leaves are doing their part. Yet, across the city of Cleveland, there’s uncertainty. Cleveland residents aren’t sure the city is coming to collect their piles of leaves. That’s because last year the city abruptly canceled leaf collection at the start of November, after piles had already been raked to curbs. Mayor Justin Bibb faced so much backlash from residents he walked away from our questions. Now another fall season is here and we’re keeping our promise to our viewers by following this through.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Ivory Jones III knows all too well the hard work of the fall season. We found him out raking his leaves to his tree lawn on Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., a street lined with large trees that have huge canopies. When the city announced the end of leaf collection last fall, it wasn’t his own yard he thought about — it was his neighbors.
“First, we were kind of shocked,” he said. “There’s a lot of trees on Martin Luther King and a lot of older residents.” But the city reversed course quickly, and Jones was glad to hear it. “That’s what we have to do more often when we have issues that are concerning the community is voice our opinion and share it in a good clear way, and it’s good to see that City Hall responds in a caring way.”
This fall, the leaf program is back again, with some changes to address those equity concerns the city was worried about. News 5 anchor Rob Powers spoke with Cleveland’s Director of Public Works, John Laird, about the backlash of 2022.
“We thought about some things, worked some things through,” he said. “The residents let us know we needed to pivot.”
As for the city’s attitude in 2023: “From this point forward, we’ve got a solid program and we’re ready to serve the citizens of the city and we’re ready to give them all we have with this leaf program,” Laird said.
So, leaf collection is back. The city plans to pick up leaves in neighborhoods considered high-generation areas. Those are the spots where there are the highest concentrations of city-owned trees on tree lawns, and in areas where there are flooding concerns. If you’re not in a high-generation area, the city wants you to know there are now new options for you as well this year.
“We want the residents to know that you can bag up to 20 bags of leaves,” Laird told Rob. “If you have neighbors who live, or residents who live next to parks, we’re taking care of leaves there, so for folks living next to the parks, you’ll see some differences there.” That’s 20 bags for each collection day that the program runs.
The city is also encouraging residents to go green. It’s working on developing programs for composting and mulching leaves. That’s an alternative Jones is open to.
“Anything that would help environmentally and community-wise and help our seniors and our elders out, I think that would be great,” he said. For now, he’s just happy to know someone is coming to clean the pile of leaves off his curb.
“I’m grateful,” he told News 5. “It’s a lot of work.”
