Canceled: Community Clean-up at Club Creek Park, 12/23/23

Update: At 12:41 AM on Saturday, Council Member Edward Pollard sent an email blast to say that the clean-up event is canceled "due to expected severe weather this weekend."

Judging by the Corona bottle caps strewn on the ground near a picnic shelter, reviewers on Google Maps are right when they say that the new Club Creek Park has been frequently used as a party spot.

Maybe that’s why District J Council Member Edward Pollard announced that his office is holding a community clean-up event at the park on Saturday, December 23. In an email blast, Pollard invited community members to join: “We will provide all the necessary clean-up equipment, so all you need to bring is your enthusiasm and a helping hand.”

Apparently, Pollard isn’t the only one with his eyes on Club Creek. On the afternoon of Thursday, December 21, a Southwest Management District Litter Services truck pulled away from the park with a bed full of bagged trash.

But they hadn’t cleaned everything. A diaper, an empty Maruchan cup, plastic bottles, and shards of a Corona bottle still littered the grass next to the path. On the north side of the park, three ravens perched on a half-sunken shopping cart in Brays Bayou. At least four more carts dotted the waterway. Near the picnic shelter, blue powder—possibly laundry detergent—had been spilled on the grass.

But a full clean-up would require more than just picking up trash and detergent. In several areas, the concrete trails are covered with thick dirt that has washed down the hillside. Club Creek Park is built into a floodwater detention basin, and much of the grass has not grown enough to prevent erosion on the slopes.

The shore of the detention pond is also ringed with a swath of dead grass, leaves, twigs, and plastic (everything from Tupperware to a Reese’s wrapper) that appears to have washed down the slopes.

Pollard's flyer says his team plans to "dispose of litter." It's not clear whether that includes half-dunked shopping carts.

The community clean-up will be held at 9680 Club Creek on Saturday, December 23, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Club Creek Park opened this May, I had the privilege of interviewing three Vietnam veterans—one at the ceremony, and two on Memorial Day. I told the stories of two veterans in the second Sharpener news article ever.