I remember when the CLEAN CITY TASK FORCE presented
its report to a City Council committee. It was
serendipity.
Just happened to be there.
Who is this woman with the ruddy cheek so worked up
about trash, I thought to myself. Susan Young, our
very own trash lay was talking about being in San
Antonio for a convention or something and not being
able to sleep so she went down on the street to see
how the city cleaned their downtown streets at night.
That provoked a few titters from the audience. I
thought "makes sense to me" as a few nights later I
found myself checking out downtown cleanliness. BTW if
you were wondering who the worst of the big office
landholders is in terms of sticky and litter strewn
sidewalks, you guessed it, Brookfield Development. The
sidewalks around city center and at least the first
Gavidae were a mess.
The Best sidewalk and litter maintenance was Hines who
manages Pillsbury Center, Us Bank and American EXpress
on Third avenue etc. If you'll notice there is not a
garbage container on the Pillsbury block and yet you
rarely see a piece of litter and if you do it wont be
there the next day.
At a follow up meeeting to the initial report by the
Clean City Committee this past summer I offered a few
suggestions myself during public testimony. I
suggested that the primary responsibility for litter
etc in the neighborhoods around commercial corridors
ought to fall to the councilpeople. Not that they
should go around and pick up paper themselves though
it might not hurt to set the example, but that they
should be working with the merchants, finding the one
or two who can lead their peers and work to solve the
problem.
I also suggested that if it were not already in the
city building code that every commercial building
ought to be required to have an outside source of
water so that on occasion shopkeepers can wash down
their sidewalks.
I used to work at the Loring Cafe on Loring Park and
in addition to tending the plant life and gardens and
flower boxes, each morning during the summer months I
cleaned the alley patio and the front sidewalks and
the gutters. Each morning I had the pleasure of
greeting most of the people who worked in the Fawkes
building. I think there is something to be said for
shopkeepers or their appointed person taking
responsibility for that piece of property they possess
just as it is their responsibility to shovel the
sidewalks.
I don't like the idea necessarily of the city trying
to get businesses to "adopt" litter containers or see
them go away. That is the sort of punitive attitude
about our present administrative I dislike. These
business people and property owners are already paying
quite enough in taxes and fees and licenses for the
very service they are now being "asked" to perform.
There is something seriously wrong here.
I don't know but I would be interested if there has
ever been a credible study on the psychology of
littering. Given our coucil's penchant for initiating
studies I'm surprised there isn't one buried in the
stacks of the municipal library. if there were I would
suspect that the poorer one is the more inclined to
litter and the less hope a person feels their lot in
life will improve the more likely they are to litter
and the less likely they are to feel their voice in
heard in a community the less likely they are to not
litter. If you can ameliorate those conditions I think
we might go a long way toward solving our litter
problem. Classic liberal thinking, huh?
I liked what Jordan Stein had to say about passive
aggressive behavior and losing one's mind over these
things. I like the idea of stooping to pick a piece of
another trash being a "mitzvah".
I think taking off on the Mayor for wanting to clean
up downtown for visitors is uncalled for. I also do
not think it shows less respect for citizens in the
neighborhoods who will soon see streetsweepers appear
and their parked cars disappear. I just think this
might be the absolute worst time to visit Minneapolis.
There is a reason this is a downtime for the hotel
industry.
On the other hand I wonder at the Mayor creating a new
position to coordinate a clean city campaign while she
already had people in place. Thier is a way around
here where departments and budgets get cut and then
when work goes undone they are blamed. I think this
might have happened with the Solid Waste dept within
Public Works. The blame can be shared by the council
who goes along with the mayor, or at least enough
votes so that her will is upheld.
Would Lisa McDonald or anyone else do a better job?
Perhaps? I don't think it requires the sort of
strident proclamations I hear issuing from other
candidates mouths. We need a leader to inspire us not
a tyrant to oversee us. I don't think our present
Mayor is either of those however nice a person she is,
and she is. As a friend said to me "I defy anyone to
spend a half hour with the Mayor and not come away
liking her."
Well I'm washed up on this subject for now (haha).
Tim Connolly
Ward 7
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