JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville is stepping up the fight against blight in urban neighborhoods and residents can help by using their smartphones.
E. Denise Lee is the head committee chairwoman for the city program called "Fight the Blight."
It's a joint effort to make Jacksonville a cleaner and safer city to live in.
The City Council Special Ad Hoc Committee said they have met frequently for the last year or so after they decided it was time to clean up Jacksonville.
"If you are a citizen of Jacksonville you deserve a quality of life, and so that means that whatever it takes to clean up the city, from mowing the right of ways to cleaning up the crime component, we are prepared to do that working together," said Lee.
But blight isn't just about cleaning up litter on the side of the road.
Jacksonville landlord Hosea Small says blight hurt his business.
"Drugs everywhere, even the users were going into houses, burning houses down. It hurt very bad that there were houses next to houses I owned and it was so bad for some of those areas that we couldn't get rented for a long time," said Small.
Small says the fight the blight program is already helping the areas around Jacksonville, but he hopes this new initiative continues to move Jacksonville in the right direction.
Residents can get involved in the fight right now by downloading the MyJax app on your smart phone. Just click 'Fight Blight' and you can report problems you see, even snap a picture.