11 hours ago
Santa Rosa retired custodian helps breathe new life into downtown greenway
A retired custodian and his volunteer group are helping breathe new life into a greenway they call the crown jewel of downtown Santa Rosa.
For Robert Ashe, the Prince Memorial Greenway is an oasis of natural beauty in the heart of the community.
I want people to feel good, comfortable down here," Ashe said.
But Ashe didn't feel good when he started bicycling to work along the pathway in 2021 during the pandemic.
"It was very heavily populated. There was a lot of debris on the ground, all over the place. It was making me sad," the Santa Rosa resident told CBS News Bay Area.
Ashe began picking up trash before he started his day as a custodian at Park Side Elementary School in Sebastopol.
"At that point, I was probably picking up 4-5 bags per day," he recalled.
Others joined in as he founded the group Friends of Prince Memorial Greenway in 2021. They help care for the 1.3 mile long greenway, on both sides of Santa Rosa Creek, from near City Hall to Pierson Street on one side, and from Olive Park to Santa Rosa Avenue on the other side.
"The goal is to show off the greenway and the potential it's always had. It's just never been given an opportunity to shine." Ashe explained.
About 20 volunteers with Friends of Prince Memorial Greenway work with the city and county to pick up trash, from bedding and clothes to cigarette butts.
They also pull weeds and overgrown vegetation, and scrub the rails on the bridges.
Volunteer Jack Cabot said Ashe leads by example.
"All this time he's been here at 6:30 in the morning. He's quite meticulous and doesn't miss anything." said Cabot.
Ashe has become the greenway's ambassador. Since he retired last year, he volunteers along the trail a few hours every day.
He tries to stay ahead of the garbage left behind. It doesn't take long, less than five minutes, to fill a small plastic grocery bag with trash on a short walk along the creek.
Ashe and the Friends of PMG are also drawing more visitors to the greenway. They've helped restore American Disabilities Act access routes to the creek, cleaned up vandalized murals, and painted the plaza that's on the back side of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Volunteers even printed a brochure for distribution, inviting visitors on a walking tour of the greenway.
So visitors, like Chayo Alvarez, can enjoy the fruit of the revitalization efforts by Ashe and his volunteers.
"Just doing what he loves to do, it's such a blessing to have someone like him who has such a beautiful heart," Alvarez said, smiling.
Ashe said the cleanup efforts are making a difference: although he observes the same amount of trash, he says more of it is ending up in the garbage bins.
And that motivates him to keep going.
"I've got to be down here doing it. It's just something I have to do," he said.
For beautifying the Prince Memorial Greenway, this week's CBS News Bay Area ICON Award goes to Robert Ashe.
