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.
ADDENDUM JULY 26, 2023: Mayor Tuerk, in keeping with both your inclusionary and bi-lingual policies, please don't be bashful about Do Not Litter signs in both English and Spanish, No Bote Basura.
It is very interesting to watch travel blogs of St. Petersburg and Moscow, to see clean streets, no homeless and actually very little police presence. Of course, I am sure that comparison is now treason, but it is a reality, and more Americans should ask, Why?
ReplyDeleteMost Russian people take intense pride in Russia and being Russian With our DEI leadership that is not the case in the United States.
DeleteIt's the New York City mentality... someone else will clean it up... and here they fine you if you don't keep your property "picked up"... they need to fine the "putter downers" and leave the "picker uppers" alone, especially when you consider most of the droppings occur while the pickers are working... the droppers need not work since they have nothing to do and all day and night to do it... at least in my neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I agree with 7:56. The litter in the park is so much worse than it was when I moved here, I can’t wait to move to the burbs. The good news is that I can sell my house to a Brooklynite for about twice what a local would be willing to pay. I’m happy- the real estate agent is happy- and I won’t have to live in other people’s trash. Nobody enforces the rules and you risk getting shot if you say anything.
ReplyDeleteMichael- I’m not sure how you handle litter problems at any of your properties, however, I drive up/down Wyandotte Street in Bethlehem every day. It is quite clear based on homes with multiple utility meters attached, that rental units present daily issues with trash on the sidewalks and off the curb. I’ve seen people exit cars and step into and over trash all the time. Not their problem to fix, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteanon@9:01: Actually I'm a former property manager, but as a long time observer of Allentown streets, I can tell you that most of the litter occurs near the neighborhood corner markets. Those shop owners do attempt to police the litter. Unfortunately, I seen misguided ones sweep into the storm grates. Perhaps we could use "litter messengers" in the middle schools, more than ex-con mentors.
ReplyDeleteThose credible messengers and ex cons just had a huge litter clean up last weekend. It was in the media.
DeleteLone Lane Park in Upper Mac has a fairly good sized picnic pavillion and appears clean and litter free year around.
ReplyDeleteI volunteered in one of former Mayoral candidate Tim Ramos's neighborhood litter clean-ups from Hanover Avenue & S. Carlisle Streets to Keck Park. I've never seen so much garbage and litter in streets, storm grates and properties in any neighborhood anywhere. It was just overwhelming. There is a little neighborhood store on S. Carlisle and the litter trails from that place can be followed like bread crumbs. That was some experience let me tell you. We must have collected upwards of 50 huge trash bags of garbage and litter.
ReplyDeleteI’m all for holding those doing the littering accountable, but I think the bigger problem the article is addressing is the lack of anyplace for people to put their trash.
ReplyDeleteIf one travels to the amphitheater at Union Terrace, there isn’t a receptacle to be found. Nor is there one at the small parking lot adjacent to the amphitheater, which fishermen and other park users frequent daily.
Decades ago, Disney found the optimum spacing for trash cans in their amusement parks was somewhere between 20 to 30 feet. Dorney Park (once among the most littered amusement parks in America) followed suit after an ownership change and cleaned up their park (and their image).
This isn’t rocket science, except to those in the Parks Department and their bosses in City Hall - more trash cans equal less litter. Yet somehow that simple fact is missed as the city opts for fewer, more expensive cans instead of following the example of places that have actually solved their litter problems.
This likely also has to do with the fact that the city doesn’t want to pay their employees to regularly remove the trash, which only compounds the problem (regardless of how many cans are there). Not surprisingly, people are hesitant to approach and use a container with a week’s worth of trash in it along with the accompanying stench and swarms of bees and flies.
It’s clear that the current approach isn’t working, so I think it’s time for City Hall to give people the opportunity to do the right thing with their trash. Get more trash cans back into the parks, and empty them more often!
anon@1:27: The Tuerk administration has been organizing some community clean-ups. That's good, better would be to potty train the litterers not to litter. I also heard that the court/pool side of Cedar Park is clean by morning after recent events. If this is also volunteer effort or city worker overtime, I do not know.
ReplyDeleteCommunity cleanups are a positive thing, since I think they raise awareness to the problem. So I do give the Mayor credit if that’s happening. Hopefully those doing the cleanup are actually from the neighborhood that’s being cleaned, otherwise the bad behavior is just being reinforced. That said, community cleanups can’t take the place of regular trash pickup and maintenance.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I’m glad that a portion of Cedar Park is getting cleaned regularly. My concern is that other areas aren’t getting the same attention.
I can tell you that during my several visits to West Park this year, I can’t remember that park being more poorly maintained. Not only has the litter been worse, but the amount of people loitering there (some drunk/drug users; others likely just homeless) is a problem. During the school year, I’ve routinely seen students hanging in the park during school hours, including one time when a group of kids were taking turns climbing and hanging on to the fountain.
That park had cameras installed years ago, but apparently they aren’t monitored or those watching just don’t care.
It used to feel safe walking there, but it’s felt noticeably less so over the past year. Maybe the police and City Hall have given up on proactive policing for things like that, but if the park keeps heading in it’s current direction, they’re going to lose another good neighborhood in the city.
I don’t think City Hall has that luxury.
Think of the optics of the City using camaras to cite black and brown people for smoking pot or loitering in a park. The Mayor is already being accused of racism over alleged discrimination against black and brown employees. I don't see any scenario where Allentown tries to enforce the "antiquated" regulations in West Park.
DeleteI can't tell if you're serious about the regulations in West Park being "antiquated" or if you're just being sarcastic, but I've seen plenty of white people in West Park that were either drunk, high or loitering.
DeleteEnforce the LAW (and regulations) equally and there's no problem.
anon@7:40AM, The Morning Call headline changed from accusing the mayor to charging the mayor with tolerating. Also the president and vp of the local naacp deny knowledge or participation in the accusation. I find the reckless accusation more of an indictment against the local chapter, than of the mayor or administration.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that it SHOULD be an indictment against the local chapter.
DeleteUnfortunately, our elected officials in City Hall (and elsewhere) will quickly cave and give in to their demands for more “diversity and inclusion” (i.e. discrimination) programs in city government.
The grift is always about getting the desired results, not about the actual facts.
At what point have did we get to groups demanding action like this?
DeleteIf the examples cited in the NAACP letter are valid, my thought is that those affected would have already be seeking monetary damages and found a competent attorney to take the city to court over their grievances. Or, if the employees are union members, their unions can file the grievances in the manner laid out in their bargaining agreements. Those are the proper avenues to address issues like this, not by demanding certain programs to benefit one segment of the workforce based on their skin color.
That neither apparently hasn't happened speaks volumes to me about the veracity of the claims being made by the NAACP.
If Tuerk had a spine, he'd send the letter back to the NAACP and tell them where they can shove it.
As a side note to all this littering malarkey... we get charged more than ever and the city accepts less than ever... THIS IS WHY you see TV sets and anything else on the list of "we don't take" littered everywhere. I personally had to remove multiple TV sets that were "deposited" in front of my garage. Years ago, we had "Cleanup Week" and you could dispose of just about anything... now they want to charge extra via tags... more money grabbing B/S!!!
ReplyDelete