Eric Gustafson, regional director of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, picks up litter on the side of the Parkway West in Green Tree .
Eric Gustafson, regional director of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, picks up litter on the side of the Parkway West in Green Tree .
Sidewalk repairs, trash removal and new landscaping will 'redd up' the region before Pittsburgh hosts its largest event ever in April
Wedding dresses, wallets, car engines and vintage Pepsi bottles.
Those are just a few of the items volunteers find scattered on the sides of Pennsylvania roads each year as snow melts and cleanup efforts begin, according to John Ryder, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
This year, trash removal campaigns are in full force and arguably more important than ever, as Pittsburgh prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors — not to mention 55 million television viewers — during the NFL Draft, a three-day gathering in April that will be the largest event the city has ever held.
“It's curb appeal,” said Caily Grube, executive director of the nonprofit Allegheny CleanWays. “When people land and they see your city, litter is going to be the first impression.”
[A view of the 900 block of Penn Avenue, Downtown, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025.
A view of the 900 block of Penn Avenue, Downtown, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025.](https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2025/12/22/downtown-pittsburgh-revitilization-buildings/stories/202512210113)
Signs that the draft is fast approaching — 46 days and counting as of Sunday — will soon pop up across the region.
Black-and-gold flowers will hang from baskets Downtown, debris lining highways and riverfront trails will be removed, sidewalk cracks will be patched, and vacant storefronts will be filled.
Greater Pittsburgh is pulling out all the stops. And for good reason.
Draft visitors don’t just include NFL super fans. The event brings site selectors, companies and investors to tour vacant warehouses, office space and more. It’s a Steel City commercial, officials have emphasized, equal parts business and sports.
Against that backdrop, first impressions carry more weight than ever, Ms. Grube said.
“It’s an economic development concern of Pittsburgh,” she said.
A good ‘first impression’
Alongside the Parkway West in Green Tree, state officials, Pittsburgh Steelers leadership and team mascot Steely McBeam picked up litter with metal trash-grabbers on Thursday afternoon — and encouraged locals to do the same before the draft.
[Construction continues at Market Square on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
Construction continues at Market Square on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh.](https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2026/01/11/nfl-draft-pittsburgh-steelers-100-days/stories/202601090063)
Officials lifted plastic bottles and metal cans from beneath barren trees as gray skies turned to a light drizzle.
“The weather is fickle at this time of year,” state Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll acknowledged. But if snow or ice should come again before the draft, “we’ll be prepared for that,” he said, adding that the state and Allegheny County are ramping up cleanup efforts on clear days.
The NFL draft will take place April 23-25, when “you could have 75 degree weather or you could have snow,” said Pittsburgh Safe Boating Council President Michael Hills, who is helping to clean up the city’s waterways.
“You don’t really know what you’re going to get.”
It’s not exactly the city’s pretty season, Mr. Hills added. As snow melts, salt and ash used to de-ice roadways build up in layers on grass and road signs.
And litter becomes quickly exposed — particularly along the Parkway West, where trash often falls from trucks headed to a landfill in Imperial, Ms. Grube said.
“We really want to remove that,” Ms. Grube said, “not camouflage it.”
Attendees pick up litter on the side of the Parkway West in Green Tree after a press conference about initiatives to combat litter and encourage residents to get involved with Pick Up Pennsylvania ahead of the NFL Draft.
That’s why the state is keeping winter staff onboard longer to remove litter and fix potholes this year, Mr. Carroll said. Pennsylvania is also spending more than $2 million dollars on litter and graffiti removal in Pittsburgh alone — an increase over previous years and about 13% of the money spent on the effort statewide.
While the draft will take place across the North Shore and Downtown Pittsburgh, hordes of visitors will come and go via the region’s highways. Pittsburgh is within driving distance of 11 NFL markets.
Allegheny CleanWays in September launched the “Immaculate Collection” — a draft-themed campaign to deep-clean the whole region ahead of the big event.
Through the effort, the nonprofit has more than doubled the amount of Allegheny County roads that will be cleaned by professional crews before the end of April.
Every year, Pennsylvania’s Adopt-A-Highway program gives companies and organizations the chance to pay a fee and “sponsor” a stretch of road — or fund cleanup services between March and November. With a grant from the Pittsburgh-based Eden Hall Foundation, Allegheny CleanWays offered interested companies and organizations a discount this year: sponsor a few miles and get one cleanup service covered.
All eligible roads between the Fort Pitt Bridge and Pittsburgh International Airport are now sponsored, Ms. Grube said, along with most of the city’s main entry and exit points. Sponsors include draft planners, such as Allegheny County and the tourism group VisitPittsburgh, as well as corporations Giant Eagle and Covestro.
Professional crews will return from a winter hiatus at the end of March and clean roads at least twice before the draft, Ms. Grube said.
“It wasn’t until the draft that we really had the momentum and muscle to get something done,” Ms. Grube said.
Downtown’s facelift
Across Downtown Pittsburgh, about 100 weathered newspaper kiosks have been removed over the last few months, according to Mayor Corey O’Connor. Dark street corners are getting lights, empty store windows are getting filled and streets will be swept clean.
Put simply, “details matter,” the mayor said at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s annual meeting Thursday.
Downtown will take center stage during the draft. Point State Park will host an NFL-sponsored fan festival and the skyline will feature prominently on TV broadcasts. That’s why local officials are working hard to “redd up” the city center.
Black and gold pansies growing inside two local greenhouses will dot Downtown once the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy fills hundreds of planters with the flowers in early April, said Art Demeo, director of community greening projects at the conservancy.
The organization puts out flowers every year, but usually starts in May. This year, thanks to additional funding from the Eden Hall Foundation, those Steeler-colored plants will be installed early.
The conservancy is also getting a head start on its flower baskets: It will hang about 400 across pedestrian walkways between the North Shore and Point State Park before the draft, as well as throughout Downtown.
“When I think of the Roberto Clemente Bridge, I think of our baskets and that scene of the bridge with our flowers,” Mr. Demeo said. “We don’t want people to miss that because of the time of year.”
He added, “We’re trying to make the city look the best it can.”
The conservancy is also replanting a garden off Route 28 on the North Side that it stopped using during the pandemic and plans to keep it active after the draft.
In other parks throughout the city, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is adding new plantings. In the heart of Downtown, the group is investing more than $300,000 in upgrading Mellon Square.
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has provided mini grants to fund at least 15 sidewalk repairs across the Golden Triangle.
By mid-April, the organization expects to fill up to 50 vacant storefronts with pop-up shops, permanent retailers and window displays.
Origin Story Coffee has already opened on Smithfield Street, where windows of empty storefronts will be covered with renderings of upgrades coming to the street in 2026 — a strategy last year’s host city, Green Bay, Wis., used.
Much of that work is supported by the PDP’s “Vibrancy Fund” — a reserve created when Pittsburgh was selected to host the draft with funding from two local foundations, PDP President and CEO Jeremy Waldrup said. The fund will also support increased lighting on some Downtown streets.
“Collectively, we're doing all that we can to make Downtown a beautiful and active destination,” Mr. Waldrup said.
‘Designed for lasting impact’
During the draft, the PDP’s Clean Team, which maintains the Golden Triangle streets, will have more staff on the ground, thanks to an expanded partnership with Renewal Link, a workforce development group that supports people exiting the criminal justice system.
All of these quick fixes come amidst ongoing, long-term plans to revive Downtown, an effort boosted by the draft.
The city and state in 2024 announced a $600 million project to breathe new life into the Golden Triangle through major projects, many of which are set to wrap up before the NFL takes over the city, including an overhaul of Market Square and Arts Landing, a new outdoor entertainment space in the Cultural District.
Construction crews on both sites have worked throughout the winter, officials involved with the projects said.
“Everybody loves a deadline,” Mr. Waldrup said. “There's really, historically, no bigger deadline than this one.
“We are trying to use that as much as possible to our advantage.”
Beyond Downtown, volunteers are fanning out across the city to clean streets.
Allegheny CleanWays is hosting ongoing “how-to” workshops for groups interested in sponsoring litter removal events. And the organization has put together a calendar of trash pickups in dozens of city neighborhoods.
The group intends to keep that calendar going after the draft. The PDP hopes to do the same with its vibrancy fund. And the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has received a grant from VisitPittsburgh to plant hundreds of trees.
“We’ll be planting trees for a couple of years now because of this,” Mr. Demeo said.
“The draft is a three-day event, but in reality, it's designed for lasting impact,” Steelers spokeswoman Cecelia Cagni said at a trash pickup event last week. “It will leave Pittsburgh better than it was before.”
Parks, trails and rivers
This year’s draft marks the first time in NFL history that the draft footprint will spread across a body of water. The Draft Theater — where all 32 franchises will announce their picks — will be built in parking lots outside Acrisure Stadium. The Draft Experience — an NFL-sponsored fan festival — will take place in Point State Park. Visitors traveling between the two will have to cross Pittsburgh’s rivers.
That’s why the waterways are a huge part of the city’s cleanup campaign.
“We view the riverfronts as the calling card for this region,” said Matthew Galluzzo, president and CEO of the nonprofit Riverlife. “They need to shine at this important moment.”
Last month, Riverlife and the city of Pittsburgh launched UpKeep, an initiative that will provide resources to different organizations for maintaining riverfront trails and parks.
Through the program, several trail cleanup events will be held before the draft, focusing on areas expected to see the most foot traffic during the event, Mr. Galluzzo said.
In early April, renovations of Allegheny Riverfront Park — across the river from PNC Park — will be completed. And ahead of the draft, the park and others close by will be power-washed, the PDP said.
The Pittsburgh Safe Boating Council is removing sunken boats from the rivers ahead of the draft, said Mr. Hills, the group’s president. The organization has identified several dilapidated vessels on the North Shore and intends to dispose of them before the draft.
“The front porch of the city of Pittsburgh is our rivers,” he said, adding that no visitor should see “abandoned, beat-up, half-sunk boats.”
Like other efforts boosted by the draft, the push to redd up Pittsburgh’s rivers and trails won’t end when the crowds leave, Mr. Galluzzo and Mr. Hills emphasized.
In fact, groups across the city — from the PDP to regional conservancies and environmentalists — say this is just the start.
“We want the city to look its best,” Mr. Demeo said, “and for residents to be proud of that.”
First Published: March 8, 2026, 12:00 a.m.