Brookview residents gathered the morning of May 1 to trim trees and bushes, clean up trash and perform other light maintenance along a stretch of road behind the neighborhood, as they have once a year since they opted out of a landscaping and lighting assessment district in 1991.

Marvin Becker, Brookview Homeowners Association president, said he first noticed that the section of Prospect Road between Saratoga Creek and Titus Avenue needed some maintenance when overgrown ivy kept him from walking easily across the roadside pathway. So he began cutting the ivy himself at first and then received some help from another neighbor.

Not much later, the city proposed an annual $36 tax on each home to fund maintenance of the roadside foliage, Becker said. But at least 80 percent of his neighbors said they would rather perform the maintenance themselves than be charged for it—well over the 50 percent the city told him needed to object. The city council voted to allow them out of the district, which also included the nearby Westbrook and Pride's Crossing neighborhoods.

Since then, the neighborhood has organized an annual spring cleaning of the short Prospect stretch. Neighbors help clean from about 9 a.m. to noon and leave trash bags for the city to pick up the next day.

John Cherbone, Saratoga public works director, said that assessment districts are usually created when a neighborhood has a common landscaped area that would not normally be maintained by the city. He said that in some cases, resident-organized maintenance would not be effective, but that plan works well in Brookview, where residents keep up the work.

"Those sometimes kinda go to the wayside," Cherbone said. "For them it seems to be the way to go, and they're happy and that's fine. And we're happy that they're happy."

Residents say they enjoy the opportunity to help out and meet with neighbors. Between 25 and 50 people from the 326 homes in the tract bring their gardening equipment, able-bodied daughters and sons and a few sodas to make the workday productive and enjoyable.

LaJuanda Denny, who has lived in Brookview a little longer than two years, said the cleanup is an example of the sense of community found in the neighborhood.

"You get a chance to meet all the neighbors," she said. "People go up to each other and say, 'Oh, yeah, you have the girls. How are they doing?' It's a nice, friendly neighborhood."

Naveen Rajavasireddy said Saratoga lacks the close-knit feel of his former East Coast neighborhood, but the maintenance day does bring residents together.

"I lived in New Jersey before I moved here, and we used to have block parties," he said. "We don't do that here, so this is one way to get to know the community."

Becker, who has been elected homeowners association president for the last 14 years despite the two-year term limit dictated in the association's bylaws, said he tries to make every new neighbor feel welcome. When a new resident moves in, he said he gives them a map of the area, the names and phone numbers of surrounding neighbors, and information about garbage pickup.

"We feel that we're probably pretty friendly," Becker said. "People move in there and they're real happy."