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A Cleaner Lawrence Starts With You

Last week city residents and elected officials met to discuss a "master plan" for the city’s future. While many issues were discussed that evening, cleaner streets and sidewalks seemed to cause voice levels and tempers to flair among some residents.

One man complained about the mayor not doing enough to clean the streets. Many in attendance agreed saying that this administration in city hall is not doing enough to make the city look better. Though I agree with them, blaming city officials (even the Mayor) for dirty streets and the filthy conditions of our city is unfair.

It’s not Mayor Dowling’s fault that some people in Lawrence don’t take enough pride in their property to pick up garbage from their front lawn or sweep the sidewalks in front of their homes. We can’t blame city workers when residents clean out their cars on the street. It certainly isn’t the mayor’s fault when property owners put garbage out two days before a scheduled pick up and it gets strewn about the neighborhood. And while the mayor may not be doing enough to help resolve the problem, we can hardly blame her or the DPW when idiots throw candy wrappers on the ground, dump tires and debris in vacant lots or leave beer bottles on the side of the road.

Former DPW director Ray Difiori was once asked at a neighborhood meeting what the city can do to educate people to clean up their neighborhoods. His answer was perfect. He said you can educate people all you want, but as long as some people are lazy and continue to dump garbage on the ground this problem will never go away. There is no amount of education which will convince people not to litter in our city. It starts and ends with the public changing their attitude and their behavior when it comes to garbage.

The state and federal government can do little to stop the selfish and prideless behavior of our city residents. Our local government can spend millions in local tax dollars cleaning what is already filthy, but the minute they’re done the city will look very much the same as when they started because the people who live here are not doing their part.

Shop owners need to sweep in front of their stores every day. Most of them do not. Home owners must take more pride in their property. Renters need to take ownership of their surroundings even if they are not financially responsible for the property they live in. And yes, politicians must stop making excuses and do a better job cleaning certain areas of Lawrence more frequently.

But it’s really not the fault of Mayor Dowling that our streets look like downtown Lebanon. They have looked this way for more years than she has been in office. And they will look this way long after se is gone. The city council may not do much to help but it’s hardly their fault either. We can blame the absentee landlords, the out of towners or the transients, we can even blame the Eagle Tribune (which is my favorite answer) but we would be fooling ourselves if we did.

No, the only people to blame for the disgusting condition of our city streets and sidewalks are you and me. And that’s the good news. Because, if it’s our fault the city looks this way, it is well within our power to change it. First, we must stop looking for city officials to do something about the filth in our streets. We all know that the politicians aren’t going to do much of anything anyways. And let’s stop waiting for someone else to address the problem. If you pay attention to your own behavior when you are about to throw that potato chip bag out the car window, and you pick up someone else’s candy bar wrapper off the ground, you are taking the first step to making Lawrence beautiful again.

Mayor Dowling made a comment during this ‘master plan’ meeting about confronting people who throw wrappers or coffee cups on the ground. She said that citizens should ask people nicely to pick up their garbage when they witness it themselves. While she meant well I’m sure, confronting morons who willingly throw garbage on the ground is not exactly the safest thing to do in a city like ours. If you truly care about the coffee cups or candy wrappers someone is throwing on the ground and want to make a difference, don’t confront anyone, be proactive and just pick it up yourself.

When you see a sidewalk in your neighborhood which needs to be cleaned, sweep in front of your house and take a few extra minutes to sweep in front of your neighbors house as well. When others see you sweeping the sidewalks they will think twice about the conditions in front of their homes and do what they can to keep it clean. Sure, some people will never care about the garbage in our city streets. That will ever change. But I believe those people are the minority among those of us who live here. Taking personal responsibility for our homes and making the extra effort to beautify the city will make a much bigger difference than government workers or politicians playing catch up with all the people littering.

This is where it starts, with you and me. The responsibility of our great city is ours, and ours alone.