Cleansville

THE CITY

It may be news to some Chicagoans, but Chicago is one of the cleanest cities in the U.S. So, on a year-round basis, are Riverbank, Calif., Muncie, Ind., Omaha, Neb., Paramus, N.J., Chattanooga and Memphis, Tenn., and Grand Prairie, Texas. But none were quite tidy enough to win the National Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau's annual Cleanest Town award, subsidized by paint and varnish manufacturers, and presented by Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman in Washington last week. The cleanest town in the U.S.: San Antonio, Texas.

The judges picked San Antonio from among 233 towns and cities that entered the contest, half again as many as entered last year--an increase due, in part, to Lady Bird's beautification program. Basis for the judging were scrapbooks submitted by the individual cities, and San Antonio's was certainly Texas-size: it came in two volumes weighing 80 lbs., and cost $18 just to ship by air to Washington.

San Antonio takes its cleanup effort seriously, carries a volunteer program sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and run on an annual budget of just $6,000. The chamber, of course, has no police power, but it prodded property owners to tidy up unsightly lots, encouraged Boys' Clubs members to move in on cluttered areas with flour sacks for trash, and ran a regular school program on beautification with films and 15-minute lectures. San Antonio Mayor Walter W. McAllister called his city's recognition "very gratifying but no real surprise." Indeed not. In the 19 years that San Antonio has been entering the contest, the city has won 18 awards for cleanliness, including a previous grand prize in 1954.

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