Why This Popular UWS Volunteer Group Is Suddenly Closing After Five Years

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OneBlock UWS, a volunteer-driven cleanup initiative that became a fixture of the neighborhood at the height of the pandemic, is shutting down after five years. The decision marks the end of a grassroots effort that once mobilized hundreds of Upper West Siders and provided steady work and community support for two formerly homeless residents who became familiar, friendly faces on local streets.

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The group launched in August 2020, when the neighborhood was struggling with overflowing trash cans, mounting frustration, and a general sense of helplessness as hotels converted to temporary shelters. Founder, real estate broker and longtime Upper West Sider Ann Cutbill Lenane, along with co-founder Jake Russell, put out a “call to action” urging residents to adopt their block and clean it twice a week. “The map that we had set up was filled up like instantaneously,” she recalled. With good weather and little else to do, hundreds signed up almost overnight. Within weeks, OneBlock paired nearly 500 volunteers with specific blocks along the avenues, where litter was most severe, and began organizing larger weekend cleanups that anyone could join.

But Lenane knew the volunteer surge wouldn’t last forever. Real, sustained cleanup required daily work, and it needed to be compensated. Guided by advice from Curtis Sliwa—who, before founding the Guardian Angels, had been involved in street-cleaning efforts—Lenane connected with the Association for Community Employment (ACE), a workforce development program for people who are formerly or currently homeless. She hired three ACE workers to clean Columbus Avenue, later expanding to Broadway and Amsterdam between 70th and 96th streets. The men worked six or seven days a week in the early years.

The program cost $120,000 to $140,000 annually to operate. City funding covered only about a quarter of that amount; Lenane raised the rest herself. “I just took a leap of faith,” she said. “I knew I was going to have to find the money.” She did—every year—for five years.

But a new set of city rules regulating “supplemental garbage pickup” ultimately made the program untenable. These rules, tied to the city’s broader rat mitigation strategy, prohibit non-DSNY workers from bagging street trash unless it is placed inside approved containers. For OneBlock, this meant two options: transport every bag of collected trash to a sanitation facility on 57th Street and Eleventh Avenue, or purchase locked, on-street containers costing $10,000 to $30,000 each.

“What was I supposed to do? Put this in an Uber?” Lenane said, noting the group had filled a quarter-million bags since 2020. Even if she could have raised the money to buy multiple containers, she would then have had to negotiate where to place them—an undertaking she described as nearly impossible. Building owners resisted having large garbage containers installed in front of their properties, and the city supplied a list of locations where they could not go. “No one wants these garbage containers in front of them,” she said. “I just gave up.”

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The Upper West Side’s minimal business improvement districts exacerbated the problem. BID-operated areas such as Lincoln Square are able to purchase and maintain their own containers and have dedicated crews to use them. But Amsterdam, Broadway, and much of Columbus fall outside any BID coverage area, leaving OneBlock to fill a gap the city never closed.

Then came what Lenane called “the final nail in the coffin.” After warning Council Member Gale Brewer’s office that she might have to shut down due to changing rules—and asking them to hold off on allocating discretionary funding until she knew for sure—the office announced in its newsletter that OneBlock had already closed. “No one called me and asked me,” she said. She had been trying to buy time, to see if there was any feasible path forward. The mistaken announcement made that impossible. “It was like, okay, it’s a sign,” she said. “I was so upset… it’s been a lot.”

“OneBlock notified our office that they were ceasing operation and, as a result, could not accept the $50,000 allocation for FY26,” a representative from Gale Brewer’s office told us. “I was saddened to learn from OneBlock that they would cease operation,” says Brewer. “The organization did great work and I was proud to support them with $50,000 each year since 2022. After OneBlock notified my office in July of their plan to close, I reallocated the $50,000 designated for 2026 to Goddard Green Keepers so they can expand their existing street cleaning and trash pickups on Amsterdam and Columbus as well as the Broadway Malls.”

For Lenane, the emotional weight of the decision goes beyond the logistics and the fundraising. She worries most about her two ACE employees, Jackie and Ramon, who became beloved presences on neighborhood streets—thanked by name, celebrated on birthdays, appreciated during holidays. “They were not faceless people,” she said. “It was life changing for them, the support that they got from the community.”

Both have new jobs lined up. Jackie will continue working with ACE in another neighborhood. Ramon will begin working at TTH Vintage Boutique in Flatiron, which donates its proceeds to the nonprofit Hearts of Gold. But both will earn less than they did with OneBlock, and Lenane is hoping to ease the transition. She is asking for one final round of donations—100% of which will go directly to Jackie and Ramon. Contributions can be made here.

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“Seeing the impact we made on the streets of the Upper West Side has filled my heart with pride and joy,” Lenane wrote in her public announcement. “As a community, we showed Jackie and Ramon they were important and made a difference.”

After five years, countless hours of labor, and more than 250,000 bags of trash collected, OneBlock UWS ends not for lack of need or goodwill, but because a neighborhood effort proved difficult to sustain within the city’s changing rules and limited support structure. Still, Lenane says she “would not change a thing.” The experience, she added, was “a wild and wonderful journey.”

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