Chester is so Trashy

A reader sent me a note about litter on her 23rd Street block. I have the same problem in front of my house with litter piling up from passer bys, cars, circulars, door hangers and ironically from stuff the trash collectors leave behind when they empty our receptacles.

I recently purchased home owners insurance from a new company and was embarrassed when the agent came to my house for an inspection. It was one of those days when trash outside the house was at its worse which included a disgusting Styrofoam container blown on the front step with some chicken bones still in it. Yuck!

I asked the agent how much would it cost for me to ‘insure’ that I could keep the front of my house clear of trash. He said it’s all about having good neighbors. But I have good neighbors. The trash just appears out of nowhere. Yeah, right!

It doesn’t take much to follow someone walking out of the corner store and watch them drop the wrapper, bag, bottle, cap, cup, can, receipt, cigarette butt, napkin, and entire food container right on the ground. Cars pass by and stuff is thrown from the window with no regard. On trash day, folks don’t use trash cans with lids and pile stuff up any ole way.

When I worked as a custodian in the Chester schools, trash took on a whole new meaning for me. In the elementary school I mostly picked up candy wrappers. In the middle schools it was potato chip bags. In the high school it was hair. Yes, so much fake hair falls out of the girl’s head that we could have started a business reselling it back to them if it were legal.

Trash says a lot about a community. Mostly, it demonstrates a total lack of regard for cleanliness. Strangely, folks who are chronic litterers are not bothered by litter. Saddly, trash demonstrates the horrible diet that a lot of people have. I think that if people ate better foods they’d be less prone to litter. Most importantly, when a community does nothing to prohibit littering, people are encouraged to continue littering.

Here are 10 things a community can do to discourage littering:

1. Clean up in front of your house and the house on either side of you since it will end up in front of your house anyway. It’s a never ending chore, I know.1. Clean up in front of your house and the house on either side of you since it will end up in front of your house anyway. It’s a never ending chore, I know.
2. Put a lot of trash cans around the city. Of course there is a cost involved and the cans must be emptied regularly.2. Put a lot of trash cans around the city. Of course there is a cost involved and the cans must be emptied regularly.
3. Get the prisoners out the SCI Chester every morning to pick up trash. When you get tired of seeing prisoners in your neighborhood, you’ll stop littering.
4. Get the prisoners out the SCI Chester everyday to pick up trash. When you get tired of seeing prisoners in your neighborhood, you’ll stop littering.
5. Police should write tickets to litterers. I’m sure there is a law on the books.
6. Hire more street sweepers.
7. Litter the city with ‘Stop Littering’ lawn signs like the politicians do during elections.
8. Make a law to use trash cans on trash day. Some of the stuff I see folks put their trash in would make me not want to pick it up either.
9. Watch the look on the face of a kid when you tell them, “Hey, you dropped something.” Every time I’ve done that they picked up their trash. I’m too much of a punk to try that on an adult.
10. If they can have a ‘Do Not Call List’, they should have a ‘Do Not Put That Stupid Circular on My Stoop List.’
11. Plant more flowers.

I’ve been to many cities around the country, but Chicago has always impressed me as the city that takes the biggest effort in presenting a clean image. You will never see a piece of paper blowing down a street in midtown Chicago. They are cleaning the streets every morning, they have an army of people picking up trash during the day, and many of the businesses have flower pots in front of their stores or in the window sills.

Oh Chester, you look so trashy. The sad part is that many of you can’t even see it. But it’s the first thing an outsider sees when they drive through.

One day a year that City sponsors a clean-up day. Martin Luther King Day comes once a year when people do their day of service thing.

We have to come up with 363 more clean-up days to get this problem resolved