Lemon Grove nonprofit revitalizes Broadway corridor

Since forming in 2024, the nonprofit Revitalize Broadway has rallied Lemon Grove residents to beautify parks and sidewalks, secured grant funding and caroled for the holidays. It was, as one of the group’s co-chairs said, a call to “shift thinking from wishfulness to action.”

The group was founded in collaboration with the public health organization Institute for Public Strategies with the primary purpose of concentrating on the environment of Lemon Grove.

“There was such a large group of people who wanted to see the community improve,” said Minola Clark Manson, one of five co-chairs of the nonprofit.

The group chose to focus on Lemon Grove’s Broadway corridor because it is highly popular with residents and is viewed as vital to the community, Manson said. Despite that, she said, the area was in decline.

A desire to increase a sense of belonging and safety in Lemon Grove is what caused the group to form, Manson said. It doesn’t want to change or “gentrify” the community, Manson noted, but to “revitalize it.”

The nonprofit meets once a month and regularly hosts events throughout Lemon Grove. In the year since its formation, the group has hosted two Christmas carols; held bi-weekly cleanups on Broadway; rallied residents to walk their dogs in the business corridor; weeded and placed new native plants at Promenade Park; encouraged the community to dine out on Broadway and more.