City cleans up for All-Star game

It's all part of Mayor Bob O'Connor's campaign, "Let's Redd up Pittsburgh."
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- This city has been on a cleaning frenzy as it prepares to host Major League Baseball's All-Star game and an estimated 250,000 visitors.
In areas around PNC Park and beyond, thousands of tons of debris have been removed, hundreds of abandoned cars and an estimated 2,000 tires have been hauled away, and about 200 abandoned houses have been boarded up.
It's all part of a campaign Mayor Bob O'Connor calls "Let's Redd Up Pittsburgh."
"It's almost like company's coming to your house and in Pittsburgh we say, 'You redd up,"' O'Connor said. ("Redd," believed derived from an Old English word, means tidy or clean up and is most commonly used in Pennsylvania and Ohio.)
The visitors' bureau, Visit Pittsburgh, is using the occasion to show how Pittsburgh has improved since it last hosted the All-Star game in 1994 at Three Rivers Stadium.
"Everybody loves to see the community look clean. That's exactly what [the mayor's] aim is and that's exactly what's happening," said Bob Imperata, executive vice president of Visit Pittsburgh.
Visit Pittsburgh will be giving special attention to an A-list of about 20 guests who can make decisions about where to hold conventions, Imperata said.
"We're seizing the moment, we're seizing the opportunity," he said.
Expects to surpass 1994
The 1994 All-Star game contributed an estimated $44 million to the local economy, Imperata said. He expects this year's game, to be held July 11, to bring in more than $50 million.
Banners have gone up throughout the downtown to promote the game and a fan festival, FanFest, being held at the convention center. The walkways on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, which leads to the ballfield, even include baseball-themed rubber mats.
"It's a sucky decade to be a Pirates fan," said Nick Crouse, 27, as he walked across the bridge, "but the [All-Star] game itself will be a great showcase for the city." The Pirates haven't had a winning season since 1992, and have one of the worst records in baseball this year.
What city leaders want to showcase is that Pittsburgh isn't the smoke-filled steel town of decades ago. Entertainment and shopping complexes now dot former mill sites, and new sports stadiums stand out on the North Shore, where many new bars and restaurants have opened in recent years.
They believe the next few years give Pittsburgh a series of opportunities to sell that image to the nation.
Open coming to Oakmont
Next year, the U.S. Open golf tournament will be in nearby Oakmont, and in 2008, the city celebrates its 250th anniversary.
"It is fantastic timing that we have so many things going that keep our momentum and positive outlook on all the things we have to offer," O'Connor said. "You can never buy this much positive publicity."
The mayor's cleanup campaign has extended into the neighborhoods, where he said he was surprised to find, in some cases, years of apparent neglect.
O'Connor took office this year after several years on city council. In some neighborhoods, he said, abandoned cars were left untouched for six years or more.
Haul away debris
Crews hauled away 440 tons of debris from just one street in the city's Beltzhoover neighborhood, said Kevin Quigley, the city's customer service manager.
"It's a quality of life issue. What we're trying to do is get the neighborhoods back in order," he said.
Operation Better Block, which works in the city's Homewood and Brushton communities, has been "redding up since the 1970s," said Aliya Durham, the group's executive director.
"You can't make people want to clean up," she said. "We are fortunate that we have people who love their neighborhood."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.