Listen Readers, you call know I'm not an environmentalist. Right? However.. there has been something that has been bothering me lately. It's the ridiculous embarrassment of the cities who have stopped picking up trash on the freeways. San Jose being especially bad. I know, I know - we are out of cash. But really? All these photos were taken today, and I could have run a whole picture card out taking pictures of it. Honestly, so much trash I don't know how they will get rid of it all. The even more peculiar thing is for the larger trash items. They send out a city employee who puts a red cone by it. I'm not even joking.
It's one thing that I pay taxes for this kind of crap. But oh yeah! Where are the "mother earth hippies"? I guess it doesn't feel as good picking up trash on a freeway as it does picking trash up on a beach. They... love... mother earth. Don't they? Because from the freeways in California - it doesn't look like it.
At any rate. I'll give the hippies a break. What I really think they should be doing is letting low risk prisoners work off their sentences. A form of early release. Based on performance of course. You don't get to come and just show up. We get people to pick up trash. I'm sure a ton of people would actually work to get out of prison early. We save money from warehousing them all.
Honestly - the whole thing is embarrassing. What do tourists think when they come here and our freeways have an insane amount of trash littered on the medians? Look at the pictures.
'Round these parts they have a program where some local group like Kiwanis or the Ford dealership volunteers to keep a highway clean, so they stick up a sign that says "This mile of highway was kept clean by..." Maybe that wouldn't be appropriate for the busy stretches in the city, but it should work for the country roads. Or would that put valued government employees out of their job of not cleaning the roads?
ReplyDeleteWell, you heard about that guy in Pittsburg who got fined for cleaning up trash?
ReplyDeleteHere
Although I can't be completely confident he isn't just trying to aggravate the city like they say. The trash pile pictures seem to be more green waste than trash.
But, the last two months it gotten super bad around here. Tires and bumpers. I've never seen so many lost bumpers on the road. A couple of months ago someone had lost a dolly. Which I might have stopped for if I was driving my truck.
It seems like we used to have signs that showed who donated to the freeways (time or labor)- I'm not sure what happened to that.
Are thise pieces of drywall in that last picture?? The hell??
ReplyDeleteIt's surprisingly clean here in Europaland. I remember coming here as a outgoing HS senior, and it was trashy. I guess we're in the country though, so that makes a bit of a difference.
Good eye. Yes, yes it is.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is - I never see people littering. I'm on the freeways all the time. Yet all this crap exists.
That pile of stuff has been there for weeks. I thought if I was bored - every once in a while I'd post pictures of it still being there. Because at this point, I'm not sure it's ever leaving. It should have it's own name. Like that trash pile in the ocean.