South Bend Mayor Mueller builds on last year's clean-up efforts

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Friday Mayor James Mueller was joined by about two dozen volunteers on the west side of South Bend to clean up and continue his Vibrant Communities initiative.

The initiative is a citywide effort to improve neighborhood safety, appearance, and overall quality of life. This started in September of 2025 in response to the illegal dumping spread across the city. When the first cleanup hosted by the city took place last year, almost nine tons of trash were collected, which is the equivalent to 3,628 bags of trash.

Both the mayor and South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski talked about the overall impact of this program, how they were going about the clean-up, and why it is important for neighbors and officials to come out and clean up these neighborhoods.

Mayor Mueller told us "The City team provides services throughout the city each and every day, but here for this initiative, we're focusing and coordinating all these services together, so whether it's the forestry team or our solid waste team or our neighborhood our neighborhood team, so all of them are coming together to make a visible impact here in this neighborhood."

And from Chief Ruszkowski "Look, everybody's a neighbor in all it all. It doesn't matter what neighborhood somebody is your neighbor; we're looking out for each other. Everybody pitching in is an entire community effort. And you know, when you have, I would like to see it turn into a competition. Way back when it was who had the best yard, who had the best decorations, who had the best whatever it may be. That's healthy, great competition. And we'd love this. That's what I'd love to see."