ROCHESTER, N.Y. — When it comes to downtown areas of cities across upstate New York, looks may not be everything. But they do mean a lot. A Rochester man hopes his daily work around the city’s downtown area is contagious.

One person’s trash is part of Mike Gilbert’s motivation.

“If there’s a lot of litter on the ground, people are a lot more inclined to litter,” said Gilbert, as he picked up trash along a downtown Rochester street littered with cans, cups, wrappers and cigarette butts.

Gilbert works in downtown Rochester. He’s trying to change that by setting an example.

“A lot of it just starts with cleaning,” he said. "It’s not exciting, it's not super interesting at times, but you really can't build life on a street if the street is dirty."

Five years ago, Gilbert founded Downtown ROCs after looking out his office window in the St. Joseph’s Park neighborhood.

“I guess you could say it’s kind of a forgotten park downtown,” he said.

Gilbert started by installing planters and planting flowers, which he waters regularly, then added park benches in spots where people gather, and fixing up old ones that already exist.

“You know, there's a term, ‘creeping blight,’ and we tried to flip the switch, and we call it creeping beauty,” he said. “We take those areas, whether it's a park bench that's a little bit decrepit and needs some work, and we renovate that and paint it. Or a street corner that just needs a little pop of color and just needs a planter to kind of bring it some life.”

In the spring, Gilbert and the volunteers who’ve increasingly joined him planted flowers in tree wells around the iconic Liberty Pole downtown. Outside of the Blue Cross Arena, there’s a row of park benches that were in rough shape, which they fixed up and gave a new coat of paint.

Gilbert says people have noticed — and like what they see.

“No resistance whatsoever,” he said. “We do get these people saying, 'Well, isn’t that what the city should be doing?' And I’d really like to stress that the city does a lot.”

Gilbert says his group helps fill in the gaps. The next big step for the nonprofit is public art, starting with a 9-foot sculpture that should be up by next spring.

“It’s just kind of taken off,” he said.  

Making sure Downtown ROCs by setting an example is contagious.

“People see people caring about the neighborhood, they take a little bit more care,” said Gilbert. “When everybody does a little bit, it actually does a lot.”