It takes an entire community to beautify your city. Cull from these 10 innovative ways to beautify your city, build community engagement and maybe have a little fun doing it.

1. Clean Up: Which areas of the community need TLC? Are waste and trash being washed up from nearby waterways, or are trash cans overflowing at the parks? Santa Cruz Neighbors provides a great checklist for planning a community-wide cleanup: www.santacruzneighbors.com/files/tooltip17.pdf.
2. Paint: Involve students and teachers of local school art classes by asking for designs, ideas and locations for murals and other public art. Read about communities and their implementation of public art at communityarts.blogspot.com.
3. Plant: Locating areas that could use some sprucing up could be a great way to connect the community. GrowNYC Open Space Greening has rejuvenated over 60 community gardens across New York City. For residents who don’t have yard space to plant their own gardens, create a community garden space where they can rent spaces to grown their own veggies and flowers.
4. Brighten: Does your community have enough lighting in areas surrounding public transportation, landmarks and public spaces like parks and fields? Read up on different design plans and functions for light fixtures at www.pps.org/reference/streetlights/.
5. Sell: Organize community garage sales and be sure to provide names and locations of nearby thrift shops and donation centers where community members can donate what they don’t sell.
6. Exchange: Create a gardening exchange program. Those with extra seeds and seedlings can nurse these plants and start a neighborhood plant exchange.
7. Recycle: Investigate which parts of your community do not have available recycling collector bins. Does your community have a recycling plan? Find the initial steps your community needs to take to begin making recycling inclusive at www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/pubs/ag473–11-community-recycle.html.
8. Clean out: Offer a dumpster collection service to visit during spring cleaning. At www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/publicworks/ns/Pages/Junk-in-the-Yard.aspx, see how Prince William County’s plan in Virginia incentivizes residents to keep the community clean and organized.
9. Create: Create spaces where your residents can enjoy their town and one another. Place seating and small garden spaces that otherwise would be unused and make your community an inviting environment. Have you heard about “parklets”? San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have both created parklets to give each block its own miniature green space. The article at bit.ly/16fzSHp asks us, what if we had a park for every block?
10. Enjoy: Does your community sponsor a music festival or annual Friday night get-together? Check out an example we found in Maryland. Catonsville sponsors an event called Frederick Road Fridays, catonsville.org/events/frederickroadfridays.php, where local bands perform a free concert on its Main Street. These events have been known to prompt 1,000 people to come out, enjoy the community and support local businesses.

Source: icma.org/en/icma/newsroom/highlights/Article/103454/Top_10_Ways_to_Beautify_Your_City