There's a slow transformation taking place around Pittsburgh neighborhoods. You may have noticed it -- ugly, vacant lots littered with trash suddenly disappearing. In their place, a greenspace sprouts.

It's part of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's Green Up Pittsburgh project, an extension of the Redd Up Pittsburgh program initiated by the late Mayor Bob O'Connor. Since its inception last October, the Green Up Pittsburgh project has cleared and planted over 50 sites.

"We're going to every neighborhood in the city, working with the community to turn liabilities into assets," said spokesperson, Joanna Doven.

According to Lauren Byrne, the Neighborhood Initiatives Coordinator, eight requests have been received within the past three weeks.

"Things are really starting to roll," she said, especially now that the program no longer seeks out long-vacant lots, but ones that aren't yet empty.

"When we demolish condemned structures, we want to fold those vacant lots into greenspaces. We're not just targeting vacant lots, we're doing post-demo greening," said Doven.

Sites are chosen based on requests, community dedication to maintain the greenspace and "market value analysis," according to Doven.

Once the site is chosen, a five-member Green Team cleans up the lot and prepares it for planting. Community members must be committed to its upkeep.

At 2534 Crispen St. on the North Side, a ballfield overgrown with weeds was turned into a neighborhood vegetable garden.

"[The program is] one of the most popular initiatives the mayor has started. Communities want to take back their communities and the mayor wants to help them do that," said Doven.