Lake Nokomis Blooming Alleys was a citizen-based, neighborhood-focused project to engage local property owners in efforts to improve water quality. The focus of the work was to use rain gardens and pervious pavement systems to capture and infiltrate runoff from impervious surfaces on private property. This involved analyzing entire alley blocks for their potential to produce runoff in a rain event. We also recruited alley ‘captains’ in targeted alleys to engage their neighbors in the project and educate them about the potential for runoff capture on their property.The project resulted in the installation of 105 rain gardens, 71 new native plantings and 85 pervious pavement systems.