The current national park philosophy, adopted by Allentown, is Carry In/Carry Out. In our environmentally woke time, the belief is that people will take their trash with them, after they guzzled their sports drink. Allentown accordingly removed most of the trash containers from the parks, instead installing larger capacity containers, which only have to be emptied once a week. While previously one man and a pickup truck removed the bags, now a dump truck, two men and crane are used to extract the 8ft. long bags from a pit below the containers.
It all sounds wonderful, until you drive through downtown Allentown any Monday morning...It looks like there was a parade every weekend. The litter in Allentown is astounding...Many throw their trash down even if there is a container within several feet. Parents throw down their trash in front of their children.
Rather than less trash containers in our parks, we should have installed more. There is nothing Allentown can learn from national park bureaucrats. Our traditional park system was second to none.
above reprinted from August of 2021
ADDENDUM JUNE 7, 2022: Early on Monday mornings, a park employee fills large containers gathering all the trash tossed down on both sides of Cedar Park over the weekend. Although the department did add some containers back since the above post was written last year, littering is a reality in the new Allentown. As the department adds new events and recreational features to our parks, this problem will only increase.
American cities are becoming the dream reality of the progressive left, third world cities with third world problems. You can bet they will eventually provide the cure.
ReplyDeleteThe litter problem in Allentown has been bad for at least the last twenty years. In West Park we try to stay ahead of it but it requires a daily effort. The parks people also pick up in the park at least twice a week. The city is populated by slobs it it that simple. Everyone knows littering is wrong, too few care. It is a sign of not only blighted neighborhoods but blighted thinking, litter is a destroyer, a welcome mat for crime, a sure sign of a disinterested, dysfunctional public, and failed city leadership. All this we have in spades here in the city.
ReplyDeleteMike,it's like that here where I live.I live on the corner in Turtle Creek near Pittsburgh. And every day some piggy person throws their trash on my side yard.So along with the shootings ,and idiots,and pigs who live around the country.We do look like a 3rd world country.
ReplyDeleteI remember driving through Allentown (east to west via Union Blvd-Tilghman Street) with a friend who was visiting from NYC. She was shocked and exclaimed “ This is worse than Brownsville!” Brownsville -a section of the poorest areas of NYC, is known for its chaos, it’s bursts of street violence and its blight. I’ve lived here twenty years and the blighted Allentown is all I remember. All the development did was block immediate view of it from certain angles.
ReplyDeleteWhen my family moved to Allentown in 1970, we were impressed with its overall cleanliness for a city its size. I'm sad to learn of the present-day litter/trash problem.
ReplyDeleteLet's also add into the mix, the garbage fee keeps rising and what materials are accepted goes down, as does the quantity... then, look at the idiots throwing their waste down!!! I can pick up my yard at 5 AM and the city comes along, takes a picture of it, and fines ME at 9:30AM!!! I don't litter, period, but I and my neighbors suffer because of it!!!
ReplyDelete