I can think of two ways to change this situation:What makes you think these would NOT involve spending public dollars? Some kind of magic would make them happen?
1. Hold companies, stores, apartment buildings, etc., responsible for picking up the trash on the sidewalks outside their properties. 2. Have inmates in the county adult and juvenile detention centers or other correctional facilities pick up the garbage on the sides of the freeways.
Consider this just a couple of ideas to make this city better, which won't involve the spending of public dollars.
Jeff Radford Kingfield
"1. Hold companies responsible..." Just how would this holding happen? Do we send our already understaffed inspections department out to look at the sidewalks in front of buildings and send them warning letters, then reinspect 10 days later, and initiate civil fines for those not cleaned up? Certainly not going to happen for free!
Or do we create some kind of bounty system, where people can turn in businesses with littered sidewalks, and get a percentage of the fine as a reward? Again, administering such a system won't come for free. (And I bet somebody could make some money tossing trash in front of a business, then turning them in for the reward.)
"2. Have inmates..." There would have to be transportation provided to the littered locations, and equipment to pick up the trash and haul it, and guards to watch over these criminals -- none of this would come for free. And you can't use the existing guards, since somebody has to watch the people still in the jail. And fewer guards are needed to watch a jail full of people than to watch a bunch wandering around loose picking up litter. (And how long would it take before some person in jail makes an arrangement with friends to leave some drugs or other contraband hidden in a special spot under some litter? Or even hide a gun there for them?)
Sorry Jeff, but neither of these could be done without increased spending of public money. (And that's not even counting the legal costs to defend these in court, if someone challenged the city's right to do such a program.)
Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson
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