Apr 10 2009
DETROIT-A Giant Litterbox
Detroit is becoming a dumping ground. Everywhere you look there is debris, garbage, abandoned buildings, abandoned vehicles, rotten mattresses, etc. The list goes on and on. Detroit is no longer a big, beautiful city. It is an economic and scenic nightmare! Take a look: 
The city of Detroit needs to strictly enforce lawn maintenance. Why are people not being ticketed, or given warnings for leaving this disgusting garbage on their property? You may not be able to force the guy driving down the street to not throw his cup of soda out of the window onto your lawn, but you CAN pick it up. Why just leave it to blow around the neighborhood? This is because people are just lazy and they do not care about their environment. Maybe if the citizens would take care of their property and the neighborhood looked a little nicer, people would think twice about littering. When someone drives by and sees an area that is full of garbage, it gives the signal that it is ok to throw their McDonald’s bag out of the window. This problem in Detroit really disgusts me. I cannot even walk my dog around the block because the broken glass and beer bottles all over the street cuts his feet. You cannot go to the park and have a picnic with your kids because there may be a suringe hidden in the grass somewhere.
</ I can think of SO MANY solutions to the problem. Let’s face it. People are never going to stop what they are doing, but here are some ideas that may help the neighborhoods look a little better:-CONTESTS. Once a year, the city can give an award to the cleanest and most improved block in the neighboorhood. Everyone who lives on the block will have to participate to keep their section clean. The award can be a hundred dollars to every household on the winning block. An average city block is about 13 houses or so. We can afford to do that. This may work, or may not. But it is worth a try. It will encourage families to put a little effort into cleaning their areas up, and may end up being a little fun.
-WORK FOR SHELTER. The city can fix up one of the many abandoned buildings. The building will be used to shelter the homeless. As rent, the homeless who are capable will be required to go out everyday, monitored by a crew supervisor, and clean up the city. (Sort of like community service) Why should taxpayers pay for homeless shelter programs when they are not benefiting from it? Let the homeless get out there and work for their shelter! Not just be lazy and live off of kindhearted people.
LAW ENFORCEMENT- This is a joke. No one gets ticketed anymore for littering. Iv’e actually seen police officers throw garbage on the ground! Great example you are setting!
PLANNING- There should be more garbage cans placed at bus stops. A lot of the busriding citizens smoke or eat their lunch at their bus stops. Where do they throw their garbage? I’ll let you guess that one!
The last thing I would like to mention about the littering problem is its effects on crime statistics. More crime happens in dirtier, nastier, polluted areas. The drug dealers do not stand outside on the corner of nice neighborhoods that are clean to sell their drugs. It is usually the “hood” that they are found in. And the “hood” is usually a very nasty place, where they know that nobody is going to tell on them because no one cares about what happens. This is just one example. I hope to see some changes soon, because this is just making me sick!! Please feel free to comment on this blog.
