By SUSAN PARK

Not your typical day in the neighborhood, the Mayor and a slew of City staffers came out in full force to clean, fill, wash, sweep, arrest, tow, repair and beautify the Lake City urban center.

Called "Clean Seattle," the goal is to mobilize every city department for one day to fix everything that needs fixing. Crews and big wigs alike swooped down on the neighborhood like little scrubbing bubbles and drove away leaving it sparkling.

The day began with the cheerleaders - the speechgivers - who roused the audience of Lake City Chamber members, Lion's Club members, Task Force volunteers, North District Council members, students, and ordinary folk.

Feeling inspired, Molly Burke of the new Lake City Farmers Market exclaimed, "Olympic Hills (students) is behind me. From 130th and 20th NE, they walked over here. They live here. This is their neighborhood and they're here today to clean their neighborhood, and see it change and see it grow."

Then, the Mayor raised his hand and declared, "Lady's and gentlemen, start your brooms!" A flurry of pint-sized Olympic Hills Elementary School sweepers went to work.

In one corner, managers Margaret Anthony and Maureen O'Neill of the Parks department cleaned the Will Rogers memorial with salt and lemon juice. In another corner, manager of community services for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) Vic Roberson found "a Christmas bonus (a tree) - deposited on a city parking lot." Bruce Bentley brought dumpsters from Rabanco. SPU crews sucked silt from street drains. Among the neighborhood streets, Seatran filled pot holes. Graffiti was removed or painted out. Barrels were picked up from vacant lots.

Abandoned cars were towed. Even 24 community service workers from the department of corrections came out to pick up litter.

After the Mayor disappeared for a few minutes (even his security man lost him), we discovered him driving a street sweeper. "I always loved them as a kid," said Mayor Nickels. Official street sweeper operator, Chris Gregorish said, "It's got power on both sides, so I let him take care of most of it."

This was one of the first of such events, the brainchild of the new Mayor's current administration. The Mayor plans to make his way around the city, cleaning and fixing as he goes. "The idea is to have everybody be in the same place at the same time so you can see the impact," said J. Paul Blake of SPU.