Building on what others have said, such as Wizard and Sara Strzok, I
have seen people unload the garbage from their vehicles onto the
street in front of my house. One day, I noticed a woman driving her
Chevy Blazer up and down the street, so I watched her to see what she
was doing. She then found a spot she was satisfied with, parked the
vehicle, go out and walked around to the passenger side, opened up the
door. She then proceeded to empty out piles and piles of trash onto
the curb. From my angle of view, I could not tell that that was what
she was doing until she had driven off. By that time, it was too late
to get her license plate number. I was livid. But I grabbed a trash
bag and immediately cleaned it up. Unfortunately, there were no
identifying pieces of trash.
Another time, I watch a woman, as she was parked on the street one
house down, do something that looked like she was folding laundry in
the front seat of her car. I said to myself "Why would you park you
car on this street to fold your laundry?" Being suspicious, I decided
to ask her what she was doing, but as I opened the front door of my
house, she threw a large pile of plastic clothes hangers on to the
street and sped off. I was unable to get her entire license plate
number. I am not sure why did not want to dispose of the clothes
hangers in her own trash, but I was certainly upset that she felt that
my street was acceptable. So, once again, I grabbed a garbage bag and
picked up the trash.
There seems to be an attitude amongst certain people that it is
acceptable to dispose of trash whereever you please. My wife is
particularly angered by the smokers that flick their still burning
cigarette butts out the window. I can only imagine how many grass
fires start this way. Also, the sight of all those cigarette butts on
street corners near traffic lights is disgusting.
Like Rich McMartin, I, too, pick up trash on a weekly basis. It seems
like there is an endless supply of trash, and unlike Bill Dooley's
neighborhood, in my neigbhorhood, the trash does not end or disappear
by the end of May. There is a constant stream of trash blowing down my
street all summer long. I agree with Rich that if just two people per
block were to pick up trash on a regular basis, we would have a much
cleaner city. It really does not take a lot of time or effort. I spend
less than 5 minutes everyday doing so, usually everytime I come home
from work I do a quick clean up in front my house and the next
adjacent neighbors.
I see keeping the neighborhood clean as a sign of civic and public
pride, as mentioned by Michael Dufresne. I see a need for action from
both the city government and the city residents. Block clubs could
organize regular clean sweeps. I am not familiar with the
adopt-a-block program mentioned by Rich, but if it is too restrictive,
maybe the city could easy or amend the restrictions. Seems to me such
a program would be a great way to harness the civic pride and
volunteerism of the city residents.
Scott McGerik
Hawthorne
Minneapolis
http://www.visi.com/~scottlm/
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