The idea of making the cleanup of alleyways a big deal came to Carlos Pinho last fall.

He was looking at the alleyway near his Chestnut Avenue home in central Hamilton, and realized it needed some tender loving care after being "disgusting for the past couple of years."

He spoke to his neighbours and community associations, and eventually joined forces with Brenda Duke, treasurer of the Gibson Landsdale Neighbourhood Hub. For the past three years, alleys have been part of the group's annual spring cleanups.

Their joint effort, the first Beautiful Alleys campaign, will kick off Saturday, April 18.

So far, more than 100 volunteers have signed up to help clean 32 alleyways across various neighbourhoods in the downtown, such as the Sherman Hub, Crown Point, Jamesville and Beasley. The massive cleanup will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and all are invited afterwards to a pizza party at Powell Park on Birch Avenue.

"It's coming together great," said Pinho, who wants to hold another alleyway cleanup in the fall with the longer term goal of holding citywide cleanups twice a year.

"But it's not just about cleaning up the alleys. It's about keeping them safe as well and working on ways to beautify them."

The city, which for several years has wrestled with the issue of maintaining alleyways, will provide gloves and garbage bags.

The day will also involve community partners Green Ventures, Environment Hamilton (through its Pollinators Paradise Project) and Community Points (which will provide training on how to safely pick up drug needles and condoms).

Pinho, who ran for city council last year, also said Ward 3 Councillor Matthew Green has made a donation.

Duke said participants will be directed to pick up winter debris such as coffee cups and candy wrappers and deliver the trash to a central depot at a yet to be determined location.

"It's just sort of like the spring clean like we always do, but this time it has expanded ward-wide and basically outside the ward," she said. "We're very excited there is this much interest in getting the alleys clean."

According to a city report, there are 778 alleyways totalling 98 kilometres between Wards 1 and 8. About 90 per cent fall under the public assumed category, which means they are maintained by the city, and the public unassumed category, which means the city performs limited maintenance but does not assume responsibility. Ward 3 contains about 38 per cent of the city's alleyways.