CONTRIBUTED PHOTO. Councilor Christina Luman-Bailey and Commonwealth Attorney Tony Sylvester assist with graffiti removal.

Back in the city’s history, back when the roads were dirt and DuPont was its sole purpose of existing, a push came not just to make it a place for factory workers to live but a “Village Beautiful.” Former fields and pine groves became lush with vegetation within two years. Beginning this summer, the Downtown Hopewell Partnership launched two initiatives to bring back some of that glory with “Downtown Hopewell Beautiful.”
Graffiti has been a problem in downtown that has vexed both city officials and business owners alike. Joyce Pritchard approached Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony Sylvester to see what could possibly be done to eliminate it as soon as possible.
“We didn’t know what to do but we knew we didn’t want it to cost the merchants a lot of money,” she said.
Sylvester told Pritchard about the possibility of funding for graffiti removal, which led to the project to be set into motion earlier this month. So far, graffiti has been removed from windows and some larger pieces downtown have been eliminated. Federal drug forfeiture funds may be available to reimburse property owners, she said.
“We went for the most visible places first,” Pritchard said. “The downtown merchants are very grateful,” she said.
In the future, the Downtown Hopewell Partnership hopes to enter into a partnership with another organization to better organize and expand the project. Currently, the process is through observation of graffiti and then approaching merchants with the opportunity to have it removed.
“We don’t have the total process set up but we’re focusing on downtown,” Prichard said.
The second push to beautify downtown takes its cues directly from the former Village Beautiful concept. East Broadway is now completely paved and brick sidewalks replace planks over the mud. It is not a barren ocean of asphalt in brick, though. Newly-planted trees rise out of openings in the sidewalk and, recently, potted plants have appeared.
Earlier in the year, the partnership began to collect seeds and pots. After weeks of nurturing, the plants made their debut in front of businesses downtown recently. The plants were given to the business owners free.
Ward 1 Councilor Christina Luman-Bailey, whose ward includes downtown, applauded the partnership’s efforts to bring back the reform efforts for cities and towns that began with the City Beautiful Movement throughout the nation in the 1890s.
“It’s a statement that we care about downtown and the community,” Bailey said.
Residents and business owners elsewhere in the city with graffiti may contact the Commonwealth Attorney's Victim Witness Assistance Program at 541-2255 for information on removal.

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