Julio Barron’s words resonate.
In this week’s letters to the editor the Chula Vista resident bemoans,albeit politely, the state of affairs in downtown Chula Vista.
The streets are trashed. Litter-ally.
Barron doesn’t go into detail but he mentions spending his weekends picking up discarded food and debris off the streets, garbage left behind by people presumably too busy or too inconsiderate to pick up after themselves.
He also talks about dog owners leaving behind the canine detritus their beloved pooches deposit on city sidewalks.
Misery loves company.
Where Barron writes about his downtown neighborhood, I have similar experiences where I live.
There was a point over the last year and a half when a leisurely 30 minute stroll turned into an hour-plus exercise of picking up after others.
No sooner would I be picking up a discarded straw at the corner then 15 feet later I would retrieve a smashed plastic cup and a lid.
Napkins, masks, clothing, batteries, condoms, food wrappers, dropped burritos, shattered CDs, aluminum cans and bottles.
Block after block.
Day after day.
The scattered debris wasn’t distributed in such volume as to suggest I was wading through a river of garbage, but the amount was enough to fill a small wastebasket liner with other people’s garbage. Daily.
Some days were heavier than others—usually when the trash trucks came rumbling through town and the lids on the garbage receptacles flipped open long enough for debris to flutter out onto the street and collect in the gutters
Other days—the very few days— the streets would be near pristine, the only clutter in sight being tree branches or leaves or other biodegradable junk that would in time grind away to dust.
But on average there was always at least a bag full of other people’s trash to be hauled around and tossed into a public trash can (that was mysteriously only half full).
I understand Barron’s frustration. I hope one weekend soon he’ll have nothing to do except enjoy a walk down a clean city street.
