Visiting the main post office recently, I took a look at the handicapped ramp that was damaged a few months ago - or should I say I looked between the ramp and its outer walls. There is a gap on each side, running the length of the ramp, and below it in a sort of well there is a formidable accumulation of bottles, cans, food containers, snack bags and unidentifiable items. In short, TRASH! 
To the right as one enters the ramp, there is an open space where Plaintalker previously noted discarded bottles and such. It is more accessible than the debris under the ramp, but would still require a special effort to get it up out of there. The stuff under the ramp poses a much greater problem for cleanup.
The ramp was damaged a few months ago by an errant driver, but was quickly stabilized with wooden rails while awaiting restoration. I don't know how the USPS bureaucracy works when it comes to fixing the physical plant, but maybe when the rails are fixed, the gaps can also be closed with wire mesh or something to prevent trash from falling down in there.Ideally, the existing trash could be removed first. And really, really ideally, people could stop tossing stuff down there in the first place.
But maybe that's a lot to ask in a city where some people think it is acceptable to file their trash in places like the shrubbery around the Twin City plaza or down the storm sewers. Solving the litter problem begins with connecting the hand holding the litter to a brain that understands why the city has trash receptacles all up and down the sidewalks. The Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority gets big bucks to empty those cans, so why not use them?
--Bernice
Bernice,
ReplyDeleteJust spend a few minutes watching people come out of stores or drive by. It is NOT the PMUA that places the debri on the sidewalks.
Welcome to Plainfield. There should be more trash cans in the downtown for people to use. But then it takes a minute out of someones precious schedule to throw it in there. Even if there were more cans in place, you cant make people use them. Maybe if we had more police on hand, we could issue summons' to the liter bugs. PMUA should also be implementing a FREE, repeat, FREE bulk pickup for residents in the city, spring and fall. We are already paying more than enough in fees to them. Might cut down on some of the illegal dumping.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the multiple pickups. In New Brunswick they get one bulk pickup per month and it is included in their yearly $360 trash bill. Yet in Plainfield we pay over $800 a year for two bulk pickups. Corruption at its finest!
ReplyDeleteMost of the debris in the bushes and on the street is more of the negligence of the car drivers and their passsengers. Can't keep it in the car til they get to the destination, must get rid of as soonm as consumed or completed. This is the mentality and taught in our places of education. People THINK it's okay to throw garbage wherever they finish with it. Words of that OLD commercial. . . "You've got to be carefully taught." And we are not teaching about litter bins and not whereever. . . .
ReplyDeleteVery poor service by the trash pick up agencies.
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