STAFF/2018
Retired Portland police officer Blaine Tyler got so tired of seeing litter on the drive from his home in Mt. Tabor to Grace Bible Fellowship, his church on Northeast 124th and Siskiyou Street, that he decided to do something about it.
Once a week for the last four years, he walks both sides of Fremont Street between 102nd and 122nd avenues and picks up trash. “I adopted the area,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be done. I’ve got a place to put the trash; it doesn’t cost me a thing; life is good.”
Fremont isn’t the only street that gets his attention. Tyler picks up litter in Mt. Tabor along Northeast Glisan Street and in Gateway around the traffic rounder known as Windscape at Northeast 102nd Avenue and Weidler Street.
“After I retired, I diversified and had the time to do things like this.”
Asked how someone could sign up to help, he said, “There’s no ‘joining.’ If you want to do it, get a $30 litter picker and a bag and pick a corner. This is what it’s all about.”
