In a facebook self video on Sunday, Matt Tuerk repeatedly told us to be kind. He also promised us that the city would catch up on the litter this week when the wind dies down.
I think the city would be better off if Tuerk realized he can't wish kindness on people, but he can get tougher on litter.
Mr. Rogers himself had a connection with Allentown. A previous minister at a large local church was friends with Rogers, and Rogers himself came to the farewell service in Allentown when the pastor retired.
When I was very young, I assumed the setting for Mr Roger’s Neighborhood was Allentown. Turns out it was Pittsburgh. A great show for kids either way.
ReplyDeleteAs a resident of Allentown who goes out 4 or 5 times a week to pick up litter and clean out storm sewer inlets in my own neighborhood, I would have found it refreshing if he had urged residents to assist Allentown by taking initiative and pride in their neighborhoods and go out and clean up litter. I don't necessarily need litter clean up as a government service.
ReplyDeleteYou don’t “catch up” on litter. You pick it up every day.
ReplyDeleteWill his city employees be “catching up” on it today, when it’s covered in snow? Of course not. Some of the litter will be plowed (or transported and piled) into manmade icebergs only to reappear during the spring thaw. Some of it will remain on the street and gradually make its way into the storm sewers, where it will eventually flow into our streams.
Meanwhile, I’d be willing to bet that a good share of the litter is attributable to a few homes or businesses on each block that the city has continuously ignored even during the warm months.
If the Mayor wants to go hunting for litter, I suggest that he visit some of the city’s parks, where illegal dumping seems to be ignored, or that he take a walk on the pedestrian “cattle chutes” on each side of the 8th Street Bridge. On that bridge (among others) there is never a shortage of litter, broken bottles and other debris. If that’s still too far for him to venture out, I could take him to continuously-littered areas in sight of City Hall.
In fact, perhaps we could organize a “Litter Tour” (or Blight Tour) to help the Mayor take notice of what seems obvious to the rest of us. For a guy that’s supposed to be a marathon runner and is likely out in the city quite a bit, he sure doesn’t NOTICE a lot.
In politics there is no room for nice. One might as well recommend being kind to the angry bear you accidentally run into in the woods. Matt needs to grow up and realize politics is for fighters, not missionaries. One marvels that he doesn’t yet understand
ReplyDeletein politics, kindness is veiwed as weakness? Trust me, his adversaries do and are licking their chops.
We have been fighting the litter battle in West Park for at least twenty five years, it's been a very long time since we had any assistance what so ever from the city or school district. The ASD could be helpful in this regard by teaching students, at a young age not to litter. Clearly, they don't. Drive by the intersection of Union and Irving Street and see the carpet of litter left daily by Dieruff students waiting for the Lanta bus. In the West Park neighborhood, one sees litter only on school days. City employees pick up bags of it in the park daily as do residents from sidewalks and alleys. When there is no school,
ReplyDeletethere is no litter. One West Park resident Harry Crasper removes hundreds of bags of litter from West Park streets annually. While in the last mayoral campaign Matt made symbolic appearances at litter pickups, his opponent made litter a central element of his campaign, saying this is our city let's clean it up. He and his supporters went out every Saturday and removed vast amounts of litter from various locations in the city. Naturally, this was completely ignored by the media and mocked by those who happened to notice. Of course Matt's symbolic effort prevailed on Election Day. Such is the inate stupidity of the Allentown voter. Scott Armstrong
The litter problem has been going on for quite some time. First thing I noticed when moving to Allentown from Bethlehem over 25 years ago is that it is a city of slobs and it hasn't changed. Living on a major road around fast food places the trash pickup from the yard would be a full time job which i can only figure is from people either throwing it out their windows or, from what I've seen, people just leaving sacks of garbage right next to their cars in parking lots.
ReplyDeleteYou want to stop the trash, go after the trash causing it instead of going after home owners who are not the cause of the garbage.
If the mayor wants to clean up the city, he can start with the city parks. Perhaps adding some trash cans, especially in the parkway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he can cut the weeds down. They turn the parks into a shambles of what they once looked like.
Mike, Turek could just hire a used car sales person to sell Allentown as a tourist destination. This not being for anything except to study crime statistics and quality of life issues for college thesis papers. I am sure Muhlenberg has a study program that is using the spin theory to twist the truth.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting idea. I've been thinking lately that Allentown really should be marketing its remaining viable neighborhoods as great places for aging suburbanites to buy smaller, more affordable homes with less yard maintenance. Aging suburbanites are increasingly frustrated by relentless new suburban sprawl construction, traffic, warehouse and apartment developments. Their neighborhoods are isolated from parks, shopping and transit and suburban gridlock is a real issue. I think Allentown should be running a marketing campaign to encourage this cohort to cash in on all the massive home equity they earned in East Penn and Parkland and move to a viable/walkable neighborhood in Allentown with smaller lots and less expensive homes, safe sidewalks, near shops, restaurants, hospitals, parks, churches etc. The target neighborhoods could be Hamilton Park, Union Terrace, the Mid West End (22nd to Ott) and of course the West End.
Delete11:10 AM what you wrote has been West Parks plan for decades. We have tried working with the schools and hospitals to encourage their employees to buy into a walk to work situation. Hasn't panned out, however, with the rapide development happening in the valley, coupled with the covid flight from locked down regional cities a lot of professionals are seriously looking at stable downtown Neighborhoods like West Park. This is completely organic and is happening in spite of the idiocy that is our city government. Give them time, I'm sure they will find a way to screw this up. Scott Armstrong
DeletePicking up litter would be a good civic duty/character building activity for the Promise Neighborhood Organization. They are flush with funding to cover all needed supplies and even official uniforms for their team members. Agree?
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor says: "He also promised us that the city would catch up on the litter this week when the wind dies down"... I can attest, from personal experience, that he means Sweep will be out in force ticketing the homeowners who are the recipient of the "slobs of Allentown" litter, which is INSANE when the wind kicks up!!! Ask me how I know... multiple times. I apologize for the fact that I go to work and can't police my property 24/7/365 to keep up with the "slobs of Allentown" that have 24/7/365 TO litter! Wake up, people. We have people problems, NOT litter problems.
ReplyDeleteSo I work full time and can pick up all the litter in a 6 block area around my house in 15 minutes per day several times a week and you were cited for litter on your own property? Maybe you are living in a more blighted neighborhood?? That almost sounds unbelievable.
DeleteYes, I live in "da hood"! You are indeed fortunate to be able to clean a large area in short order... kudos to you!!! A few years back, I was able to fill 55 gallon garbage bags at the rate of 2 a week, and that was just picking before I left for work and after I returned... the rest just blew by. If I don't personally blow the leaves from one end of the block to the other, we're up to our ankles in leaves till the wind drives them away... usually up on my porch. The leak situation has improved considerably with year round street sweeping... and ticketing...
DeleteYeah, believe it... pickup litter on my way out the door at 6:30 and cited at 10:00 but only happened on windy days... they know when to make $$$$.
11:34: I agree that there’s a “people problem” as far as littering. But those people are living somewhere, and it’s not out-of-town. The same slobs that you see throwing items out of their car windows are going home and doing the same there.
ReplyDeleteIt’s up to the city to crack down on them, whether they own the home or rent it, or if it’s a business that’s causing the problem. If you’re being unfairly fined, tell the SWEEP people where the problem is coming from.
In my neighborhood, I could take you to the problem residences whose back yards look like an episode of “Hoarders”, and businesses who leave boxes and trash in their loading areas to blow around the neighborhood on a windy day. These aren’t new problems, but the same problem locations year-after-year.
I’m sure that’s especially unpleasant for those living closest to those places, and especially unfair to them if they are being fined for someone else’s mess. But the only way it gets better is if the city goes after the properties that are problems.
That said, the city needs to actually GET OUT and DO something about it. When I call about problem properties, they want an exact address. Not so they can come out and see the problem for themselves and actually talk to the problem owners/tenants but so they can MAIL a letter to them. By the time it winds through the city’s process, four or five months have gone by.
If Tuerk wants residents to raise their standards, the city has to raise theirs. Treat litter and tall grass/weed problems like they matter and maybe people will take them seriously. Fine repeat offenders frequently and drive home the point that these types of problems won’t be tolerated. If the SWEEP department can’t handle it, clean house and replace them with someone who will.
Action gets results. There should be no “catching up later”, only an urgency to solve the problem NOW!
I reported a specific property in my neighborhood to Solid Waste & Recycling for having a pile of junk and debris from home renovations in a large canvas bag in their back yard for several months, they responded and the junk was removed within a week.
Delete9:37 - Thank you for bringing up the trash can issue. I live near Union Terrace and have been trying to get more cans installed in that area for the last couple of years. The closest ones to the UT amphitheater are on Walnut across from Dunkin Donuts, or on Union Street across from the pond. Neither are really a convenient option, and those visiting the amphitheater from other areas likely wouldn’t even know they are there.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the city/school district hasn’t replaced one of the blue “pole receptacles” on Union (to the east of the school) that went missing, and the city removed a plastic 55-gal receptacle from the small parking lot near the Reading Road Bridge.
When I called a couple of YEARS ago asking for more cans, I was told that they were looking at different options, but that the receptacles they were evaluating cost in the range of $1,600 a piece.
Talk about letting the search for the perfect get in the way of solving the actual problem!
We need more trash cans that are emptied regularly, not fewer behemoths that compact the trash and need their own concrete pads. This isn’t a new concept or something that we didn’t know before.
If I didn’t know better I’d swear someone was getting a kickback on the overpriced items the city is purchasing.
BTW, still no trash cans/receptacles near the Amphitheater!
Unfortunately the Allentown Park System adopted the trendy "carry out what you carry in" philosophy several years ago and took away trash containers, replacing some with large pits, requiring a small crane truck to remove the oversized bags. With the city's changing denizens they should have instead added more conventional containers and emptied them more often.
DeletePublic litter is like graffiti. Unless you immediately remove it, you get MORE.
ReplyDelete