Mayor Robert Garcia wants all hands on deck for a new “clean” initiative aimed at ridding city streets and neighborhoods of trash, graffiti, illegally dumped items and other contributors to blight.

“Every single city employee should be involved in making our city look better and be a better place for our community,” he said during a recent city council discussion. “I think it’s a basic service we should be providing and right now, the city is not at the level of cleanliness it should be.”

In recent years, Long Beach leaders have taken steps toward improving the city’s appearance, including the expansion of the Clean Team, new technology like the Go Long Beach app, and hundreds of new trash cans. And though there are local laws on the books to curb blight, Garcia said many neighborhoods are still “plagued” with empty shopping carts, scattered trash, dumped items and litter- and graffiti-laden freeway on- and off-ramps.

“We want to make sure we can redouble our efforts,” he said.

Garcia, with support from the entire city council, directed the city manager to draft a report analyzing current efforts and identifying opportunities to grow and expand the program. He listed 18 recommendations for staff to consider, including ramping up code enforcement, neighborhood cleanups, and mapping conditions at all freeway access ramps in order to work with Caltrans on cleanup.

Several council members added a few suggestions of their own to the docket, including Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, who said she would like to see an annual trash audit that details the physical makeup of debris that pollute city streets and waterways.

Garcia asked that staff prioritize the report, with the expectation that findings will be presented during a study session sometime in November.