Okay, Okay. So it's not just open dumpsters, garbage
haulers, etc. who are responsible for most of the
litter. It's the population in general. How can we
move toward solving the problem.
First of all, let's lighten up a little and realize
this is only one of many problems in our city and not
necessarily the most pressing. Just remember: into
each life a little rain must fall. We live in a city,
learn to live with it.
If the campaign for Mayor hinges on this issue as Lisa
Mc. would have us believe, either we have serious
issues with reality here, which, given the Mayor's
support for a statue of Mary Richards on the Mall is a
reasonable conclusion, or we're just so fat and sassy
we might as well cancel the DFL convention and the
elections and clap our hands together loudly for the
incumbent team of politicians.
Second, and more germane to the topic of litter
control, has anyone in city government given due
consideration to the idea of not allowing any more
fast food franchises with drive-up windows rather than
having the Planning Commission work on site plans for
the status quo?
Walking the main commercial streets such as Broadway
where I was Saturday morning or Lake Street where I
was Friday or Nicollet south of Grant where I was
yesterday one is struck by the percentage of street
waste that bears the marking of McDonalds, BK, Wendy's
etc. My guess would be that the majority of that comes
from auto ejection though certainly a percentage comes
from the hands of pedestrians.
I would go even further than just not allowing drive
thrus in the future, I would sunset existing
drive-thrus unless and until business operators can
prove a demonstrable improvement in the environment.
Let them come up with plans and campaigns rather than
having the taxpayers foot the entire bill as we do now
with the wasteful public relations CLEAN CITY campaign
intended to make citizens believe their government is
hard at work on this problem and that their salaries
are justified.
Lisa McDonald has been Chair of Zoning and Planning
for how long now and this has not occurred to her?
Mayor Sayles-Belton has been Mayor for how long now
and this has not occured to her? R.T.Rybak has been
polishing his politically correct environmental
credentials for how long and this has not occured to
him? Mark Stenglein has represented the people who
live either side of Broadway Avenue for how long now
as a county commissioner, an even more powerful and
far-reaching position than city officials, and this
has not occured to him?
I don't know. You tell me. Does this sound like a plan
that might address part of the litter problem? Is
there a legal problem I am not seeing here? Does
anyone think this might be a problem in other cities?
If our Mayor who loves to talk about her national
influence put some effort into this sort of plan do
you think she might be able to garner support from
other Mayors? Would our city step out in front as a
truly progressive city as R.T. suggests we should out
of some mistaken jingoistic appeal to the voters'
sentiments?
So the big boy franchisors and their local franchisees
don't like it, let 'em fight us in court. Let 'em take
it all the way to the Supreme Court. We can get other
cities to file "friend of the court" or amicus curiae
briefs (believe it or not I was an altar boy, briefly,
and a Latin scholar) in support.
Perhaps we could get outside legal assistance better
than the city had in the LSGI case so the office of
the City Attorney can spend more time pressing hard
misdemeanor charges against ISAG protestors, hassling
the people at the Hard Times, and follwing the Mayor
around on her 'dog and pony' CODEFOR precinct shows.
Third: Recall if you will the word(s) of Mr. Robinson
to Benjamin Braddock in 'The Graduate'; "I've got one
word for you Ben, PLASTICS."
Spoken like a California oilman.
When you walk the streets it quickly becomes apparent
that we are awash in plastic products, be it bags or
bottles, We've got it coming out our ears.
Last summer our esteemed City Council passed an
ordinance that made it law that any establishment
serving beverages outdoors must serve said beverages
in plastic containers. Ummm, just what I want, a fine
bordeaux out of an oily plastic container.
Ostensibly this was done so that unruly drunks would
not poke jagged broken bottles into the eyes of other
unruly drunks or hit them over the head or whatever it
is stupid beer drinkers from Eden Prairie do with
bottles, no doubt, in, but not excluded to, our city's
fabulous downtown "entertainment" district.
Now we have tranferred refreshments from one container
into another because some people who ought to be
arrested and punished have screwed things up for the
rest of society. This reminds me of taking benches out
of parks to stop vagrants and homeless sleeping on
them and thereby removing the possibility of a tired
walker finding comfort.
If the City Council can pass an ordinance forcing the
use of plastic containers in outside eating and
drinking areas it would seem logical to me that the
same Council could pass an ordinance forbidding the
sale of beverages, including milk (Oh God, now he's
attacking the sacred state cow of the Dairy Industry)
in plastic containers. We could give the affected
industries time to comply.
In the meantime, Our Mayor, who once again, loves to
point out her influence in the Democratic National
Party and in the Conference of Mayors could lead the
charge. Certainly we are not unique among cities with
the ever increasing number of flattened plastic jugs
and bottles in our street gutters and vacant lots.
The plastics industry; i.e., the oil industry will go
nuts. On the upside legal costs could be offset by all
the glass industry dollars flowing into a defense
fund.
Beyond the obvious aesthetic benefits of less plastic
on our streets, think of the general environmental
benefits. Our demand for oil will plummet making it
harder for highly placed Texas oilmen to justify
destroying the Arctic wilderness, petrochemical plants
will spew fewer toxins into the air, our wonderful
garbage burner will pour fewer toxins into our local
environment, etc.
It has to start somewhere. Why not here? Even if our
city ultimately failed to prevail in courts which I
seriously doubt given conservative philosophy to honor
state and local rights in matters pertaining to their
own jurisdictions and liberals' supposed inclination
to protect the environment, we would be perceived as a
progressive city that cared about our environment and
the continued health of our citizens.
And finally: Based upon my own presumption that at
least some of the tagging we see is perpetrated by a
group of disaffected, disrespected, discounted youth
who view the obvious hypocrisy of government leaders
courting corporate interests who pollute and cheapen
life and cut down venerable old trees, all the while
mouthing platitudes about the environment and the
urban forest; these same youth might begin to think to
themselves that "here are people I can trust and who
will listen to me instead of lob tear gas at me" and
who then might stop discounting the concerns of those
who feel violated by their tags.
Hey, it's just a thought.
Tim Connolly
Ward 7
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