If you drove downtown this morning, you probably saw dozens of people coming together to help clean up after the weekend protests in Austin.
Downtown Austin Alliance employees were out in full force, scrubbing away graffiti. Business owners were seen sweeping and wiping down the area outside of their shop. And friends and neighbors joined together to assist with the cleanup in anyway they could.
We joined up with a cleanup group organized by Dave Rodriguez of the bands Starving Wolves and The Casualties. He told us he simply wanted to get people together to do good.
Lion and Kyra, seen below sweeping up broken glass on Sixth Street, aren’t local business owners or involved with a business impacted by the weekend’s events. They’re just friends with Dave and wanted to help out.
Tim and Sarah Lupa are in fact local business owners, though their businesses were not affected.
“We felt the need to contribute to the community, show up for local businesses,” Sara said. “If this ever happens to us hopefully people will show up too.”
The Lupas own Drinks Lounge and the cocktail bar Velouria.
Surprisingly, downtown streets are pretty clean. Some might say they’re cleaner than ever. But the graffiti will take more time to scrub off. So, if you want to help with the cleaning efforts, we recommend starting there.
If you’re looking for other ways to donate your time or money, contact an Austin-based nonprofit like the Austin Justice Coalition.
All photos by Dani Dudek/ Austin.com.
