Trash
i read an article in the O yesterday and have been thinking about it a bit. the article asked the question - why is there so much trash around? well, at first, i thought, there’s not any more than usual and it’s usually only in certain areas - i.e. under overpasses, but offramps, in my neighborhood, etc. i couldn’t get my mind around the fact the the whole city felt a bit trashy (and i’m not talking about strip clubs.)
well, just this morning, on the way to coffee i eyed the following. i gues they are unpacking something down by the budget truck and just letting all the styrofoam peanuts fly away. the peanuts were strewn all the way up to Macy’s (i mean M&F)
then, along the next few blocks, i too saw what the O pointed out - there was garbage 3 feet away from empty garbage cans. i even saw someone throw a burger wrapper on the ground instead of in the garbage can.
is this isolated? i do think it is because you won’t find flotsam and jetsam among the mcmansions in the westhills. is it a class or socio-economic issue? i don’t know. in my neighborhood, NoPo, i would see all classes and ages of people just throw garbage on the street or out the window. kids; parents; grandparent - i didn’t understand why, but sometimes, i’m not going to challenge.
what to do…. is it that we have lost interest in our surrounding? do we just not care? i care. i’m gonna start doing what was suggested - be civic about it. if i see garbage that is not unsafe or unwieldy, i’m gonna pick it up and put it in the garbage. maybe, just maybe, someone else will see that and think its a good idea too.
Where are all the damn people working off their community service?!
good question. i did read a blog entry somewhere recently that asked the question why don’t the people asking for change at offramps and onramps pick up their garbage or be charged for it somehow. i just didn’t want to rant too much.
When I first moved to this city, I was coming out of the library downtown and stopped dead in my tracks. Two cops were picking up all the litter around the library steps. I thought, What a great city this is! Since then, I have noticed this other times. There is an embankment where I-5 exits into the rose quarter. I’ve seen cops pickup up trash there three times. It’s not like they are looking for something, they are just picking it up. Last time one was there by himself and I wondered if he was being punished or something… but he was a sergeant. Go figure. Obviously the answer is, we need more cops! In the meantime, I’ll just keep picking it up myself.