It’s well known in Britain that the entire country is a great big rubbish dump into which you may cast your cigarette ends, crisp wrappers, used condoms and half-burnt mattresses. If you see someone on the street opening a new packet of cigarettes, I would say there’s about a one third chance that they’ll thrown the packaging in the street. As a result of this, British cities are – perhaps unsurprisingly – strewn with junk. Before I moved to the US, I rather thought this was the way cities were.
In the US, at least here in Seattle, it’s quite the opposite. There’s a real sense of civic pride about keeping the city clean, and as a result it’s much nicer walking around. I suspect this is something of a chicken-and-egg situation – if everyone else is throwing their crap in the street, why shouldn’t I throw mine? Assuming I am a pikey bastard with a dog on a bit of string and whose children have tattoos.
Chris, you are so, so, so, so right!!! That is one of my pet peeves; people here in the UK treat the street and the stunningly beautiful countryside as their own personal rubbish bin. It’s a national disgrace. I was taugh to treat my country and my town with a bit of respect.
Ah. Hum. Mike, the reason you agree quite so forthrightly with this particular post is because I stole it, one hundred percent, from your book. Not to say that I don’t agree, of course, but it’s plagiarism at its finest.
Keep your eye out. I made notes.
It’s called “Broken Windows” syndrome– evidence of neglect leads to more neglect, and last I heard it’s true. Mayors of some cities (a fellow named Giuliani over on the east coast, e.g.) have managed great strides in cleaning up their cities by attacking the little things, namely graffiti, burnt-out bulbs, and the aforementioned broken windows. Of course, fixing these problems doesn’t require mayoral involvement, as long as the cost of fixing the little things isn’t too high.
Seattle’s probably exceptional, and while you don’t see crisp-bags, you do see cigarette butts everywhere, since smokers were banished by state voters (primarily Seattlites) to shiver outside in the cold.
And don’t forget the discarded GUM!!!!
I sat at a bus stop the other day, and having nothing more interesting to look at, I counted the flat blobs of discarded gum on the pavement (sidewalk) around me and lost count as it eventually became a carpet. Why do folk think it is OK to drop there probably germified/sticky gum all around.
Love Granny
miss spelling sorry, it should be THEIR
“Hum. Mike, the reason you agree quite so forthrightly with this particular post is because I stole it, one hundred percent, from your book. Not to say that I don’t agree, of course, but it’s plagiarism at its finest.”
Are you sure that this is so?