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Citizen complaint of the day: Citizen complaints
By adamg on Sun, 01/11/2015 - 6:29pm
A concerned citizen complains about all the complaints about litter in Boston:
I see lots of complaints about litter on sidewalks and gutters. Do people want street cleaning all year round? Grab a broom and clean up in front of your own home.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
I agree with the complainer.
I agree with the complainer. In the time it took to post all of the complaints about trash on the street they could just sweep it up.
Yes, but
you wouldn't clean someone else's curb. And you might not know who owns the building to complain to them, but the city will.
Why wouldn't you clean in
Why wouldn't you clean in front of someone else's house? That's what being a neighbor is all about. I don't have neighbors in westwood.
Because
a huge number of the places that get dirty are where there are no single family homes or homes at all, and where the person filing the report may just be passing through. That's why the city has the app in the first place, so people who spot a problem situation can get it addressed by the appropriate person and hold them accountable for their lack of action.
Expecting apartment-dwellers to wander the city with trash picks and weed whackers is a bit unrealistic. If you applied the logic that "If you don't like it, fix it yourself!" to the entire city, absolutely nothing would ever get done, because lazy property owners would just not do anything on the grounds that "well, if people really wanted the sidewalk shoveled so they can get to the T stop without wearing fishing waders, they'd do it themselves."
I sweep/shovel in front of my
I sweep/shovel in front of my home and my neighbors on either side. A lot of these homes are condos now. Some of the residents feel that it is the condo associations problem to sweep or shovel their stairs and front walk. Needless to say it doesn't get done and is a hazard for people walking by and delivery persons.
Most of the time in a condo
Most of the time in a condo situation the responsibility for the shared spaces like stairs and front walk is on the association. Sure, they probably won't complain that you're doing their job, but they're liable for it.
DO IT
If you have a problem with it, then take action and do it and solve the problem on your own.
Exactly...
How hard is it to pick up something and toss it in a trash barrel?
Soap and water are everywhere. You can wash up after.
- The Original SoBo Yuppie
I think all right-thinking
I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not! And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am.
Not the point
A lot of tenants/landlords/homeowners are paying management companies to do cleanup of their properties. If they aren't doing their jobs, they should be held accountable. Neighbor's shouldn't have to step up when someone else is getting paid and not doing the job.
We get a lot of trash in front of our building because of the terrain of the property. I could probably spend an hour a day cleaning it up. But I'm already working 8 hours a day and paying a company to keep the front clean.
Sometimes getting the city involved is the best way to find a long-term solution. Otherwise you might be stuck cleaning your neighbor's yard forever.
I agree with you but have you
I agree with you but have you seen some of these reports? They are ridiculous. They take pictures of a single soda can in the gutter and want the city to send someone out to pick it up. Just pick it up.
Oy.
Back in the Dark Ages, I lived on Linden Street off of Cambridge in Allston.
The Trash! Took to sweeping the sidewalk every evening when I got home from work (in decent weather). Also set pots of Geraniums (the cheapest, cheeriest flowers I could find at the store) on my front porch steps.
Remember the day when I saw a little darker than me kid eyeing the flowers. I asked him what was wrong, and he said that other kids wanted to smash them.
"Why?"
"Don't Know."
Told him to take one of the pots back to his mom. Also told him to send his friends over, and they could have flowers, too, for their moms/grandmas/sisters/etc Word got around, and I ended up out of a serious bit of discretionary income for a couple months. The lovely thing, though, was that they were actually asking me for advice and taking good care of things. (Got invited over to a couple kids' places to see.)
I still had to sweep every day, but I made an awful lot of friends, and they would actually refer to me as Ma'am. No one ever bothered my plantings, either. (Hated that apartment / loved the experience.)
It kills me to see litter
It kills me to see litter caked to everything in Dorchester. I know some people are elderly, busy working, or raising families, but if you're someone who ends up with even 30 minutes, it's pretty easy to go out and pick up some of the trash and sweep up a little. I've only been able to do it a couple of times over the past year, but it's been a great way to actually see my neighbors, say hello, and let them know that I give a shit. And some of them have stepped up and taken the time to do it too. Kind of cool actually. And as a bonus, it's great exercise.
That being said, I do think the city should be able to crack down on the properties that are the worst offenders. The property doesn't need to look fancy, and there's no need to hassle anybody over little things, just maybe not be filled with bottles, trash, and plastic bags wrapped in the bushes.
If you only had time twice in
If you only had time twice in the last year, what makes you think any one else in the neighborhood has more time to devote to other people's trash?
They don't need to have "more
They don't need to have "more" time than myself. If only a few people are able to take a turn once or twice a year, it seems to help. Sure, the wind will blow things around from time to time, but our street looks amazing compared to the one next to it where it's obvious nobody has cleaned their yard in at least a couple of years. Our street has the occasional bottle or gum wrapper while the other looks like a landfill.
People seem to take to pitching in much more easily when it's only maintaining, not a huge laborious clean-out, and when they know their fellow neighbors won't undo their work in a week. It doesn't need to be just adults either. I was impressed when a couple of kids asked me if they could help. They seemed to appreciate that they didn't have to toss their ball around in broken glass.
I'm not saying it's something everyone is able to do, but some are, and more are willing to than you might think. I've noticed that when something is nice, the majority of people allow it to stay nice. Once something is ugly, people give up and allow themselves to contribute to the ugliness. There are people out there who just don't appreciate anything, but there are more out there that do.
Dumpster lids
My neighborhood has the dual issue of people opening their car doors when they park and tossing all their trash on the curb and dumpsters never having their lids closed.
It seems like every other trash day is wicked windy and the trash in the dumpsters just blows all over the place. The buildings around me are municipally run - it would be nice if the city would follow its own rules about trash!
I clean up every day in front of my house and the surrounding buildings & some of my neighbors have started to help, which is great. But it would be less work if a few laws were enforced!
I think we need a new anti-litter campaign.
Who needs 30 minutes
Yes, for literal dirt, that takes time, but how long does it take to pick up wrappers, bottles, papers, and the like? I do it when I put the garbage out every week. It takes 5 minutes tops.
That said, I don't feel responsible for the condo up the street that is small enough not to have a management company cleaning up. That is report worthy.
How about education to not litter?
I agree with some of the comments to just go out and sweep in front, but that doesn't solve the problem of some entitled people who feel the City is their personal trash can. I live in East Boston and take great care of my sidewalk and my close neighbors, but it is incredibly disheartening to be out sweeping and have some arse throw his Dunkin Donuts cup and/or scratch ticket on the ground 10 minutes later. I'm all about taking care of one's own property, but how about ticketing people as a deterrent to littering?! I can't even fathom just throwing something I'm done with on the ground... Maybe I was just raised different. Ok, end of rant.
Former Eagle Hill Resident, myself!
Part of my education in Spanish was learning that "I'm sorry, but you dropped something" was "Lo siento...pero .ha caido una cosa" while following folks who'd just drop trash in the street a few feet away from trash receptacles.
The blame is on the State
The blame is on the State Lottery commission for our littered streets and sidewalks primarily near where lottery tickets are sold , The Mass state Lottery Commission prey and provoke the people of East Boston and other poor neighborhoods in Boston in buying their loser scratch tickets!!
If only they can have a 5cent return on a recycled loser scatch ticket , just maybe the streets will be cleaned up.
Having far fewer games
in circulation at any given time would help as well. 35 to 40 games available (just go into any 7-11 if you doubt me) is just plain ludicrious.
Chronic types of litter
As you mentioned:
1. Dunkin Donuts cups, straws, styrofoam, etc
2. Cigarette packs and butts
3. Post-scratched Lottery Tickets
4. Other fast food franchises (depending on your area) - McDonald's, Burger King, etc
5. Plastic water bottles
I was in Columbus, Ohio a couple of years ago and I could not believe how
litter-free the downtown area was - so it's certainly doable.
However, around here - even where there are trash cans - the trash cans overflow
and people still dump their stuff around it.
One More
I always see those disposable one-use dental floss picks on sidewalks, which completely skeeves me out.
Just pick them up!!!
How lazy are you???
This lazy
Hanging out at Panera, reading UHub.
FYI - if like me you live in a building near property owned by one of our higher education institutions you may occasionally benefit from said insitution taking responsibility for sidewalk cleaning. NEU used to employ students who sweep/shovel parts of Huntington Ave weekly, but I haven't seen them out for awhile. To bad, because they generally do a better job than some of the business owners responsible for the sidewalks in front of their storefronts.
Who wouldn't want to dig
Who wouldn't want to dig through the garbage in their neighbors' gutters? Bring the family, make an event of it! Just make sure the kids know that those balloony-things are not actual balloons.
Year Round Street Cleaning
We need to be demanding for year round street cleaning. During the winter months it would be a combination of street cleaning, snow removing, etc.
No Place Trash Barrels Overnight
This would make a huge difference. When trash is left outside overnight raccoons get in it, winds blow barrels over...etc.
Trash should only be put out the morning of pick up.
Marty makes this happen!
I see no difference in the
I see no difference in the amount of litter just after a street cleaning.
Here's the problem
The streets get cleaned. The sidewalks do not.
Of course, it is easier for property owners to clear litter off their sidewalk than to clean the gutters. Just sayin'
Role Model
One afternoon in 2004, I had exited the Back Bay Station and was walking toward Copley Square and noticed out of the corner of my eye someone picking up stray newspaper pages rolling along the sidewalk and carrying them over to a trash can. Someone walking in the opposite direction called out a greeting to the man, and made a comment about the ongoing DNC proceedings, to which the litter cleaner politely replied. The voice was familiar, curiosity got the better of me and I turned to look. Sure enough, it was Michael Dukakis, trenchcoated, briefcase in hand, but taking the time to clean up the place.