Welcome to the 7th Step of our 12-Step Series for Detroit. This week's post, very loosely based on the AA 12-Step Program asks us to remove our shortcomings. This is the perfect opportunity for me to let you know about one of my pet peeves about living in Detroit: the amount of trash almost everywhere.
Many of the residents of the beautiful neighborhoods I write about every week take pride and care in their surroundings...
...but in too many areas in Detroit, you can feel as though you are in a pigsty. Trash on the street and along the highways is not only ugly and depressing, it is totally unacceptable. To me, to allow yourself to live with trash and garbage around you suggests that you just do not truly care about Detroit or yourself. The fact that Detroit is in an economic recession, if not depression, is no excuse.
The worst time for trash is in early to mid-April, after the last snowdrifts have melted. As I drive around the City, or try to walk my dogs on the sidewalks around the perimeter of my neighborhood, I get sick just seeing the trash on the streets. It doesn't have to be that way. I remember several years ago being in Chicago with my mother visiting one of our cousins. We decided to get some barbeque, which meant driving to the "sure 'hood". As we drove down a main street, I suddenly noticed: the streets are so CLEAN! I was shocked--we were in the 'hood; but the streets were practically spotless. I asked my sister, who now lives in Chicago: how does a city larger than Detroit keep the streets so clean? She answered that the City of Chicago and its Mayor make it a priority to keep the City--all parts of it--clean and decorated. A priority to be a clean and beautiful city--downtown and in the neighborhoods. Period.
Roger Penske has done a lot to help keep Downtown Detroit clean and beautiful and to bring racing events and visitors from around the world to our City; now it is up to us to help Detroit keep the rest of Detroit beautiful. I have a couple of thoughts that I will pursue; I'll talk about them in a later post.
What are YOUR thoughts and ideas? I look forward to seeing them in the Comments section...
Shameless plug: please read my husband's blog The "D" Spot...
Many of the residents of the beautiful neighborhoods I write about every week take pride and care in their surroundings...
...but in too many areas in Detroit, you can feel as though you are in a pigsty. Trash on the street and along the highways is not only ugly and depressing, it is totally unacceptable. To me, to allow yourself to live with trash and garbage around you suggests that you just do not truly care about Detroit or yourself. The fact that Detroit is in an economic recession, if not depression, is no excuse.
The worst time for trash is in early to mid-April, after the last snowdrifts have melted. As I drive around the City, or try to walk my dogs on the sidewalks around the perimeter of my neighborhood, I get sick just seeing the trash on the streets. It doesn't have to be that way. I remember several years ago being in Chicago with my mother visiting one of our cousins. We decided to get some barbeque, which meant driving to the "sure 'hood". As we drove down a main street, I suddenly noticed: the streets are so CLEAN! I was shocked--we were in the 'hood; but the streets were practically spotless. I asked my sister, who now lives in Chicago: how does a city larger than Detroit keep the streets so clean? She answered that the City of Chicago and its Mayor make it a priority to keep the City--all parts of it--clean and decorated. A priority to be a clean and beautiful city--downtown and in the neighborhoods. Period.
What are YOUR thoughts and ideas? I look forward to seeing them in the Comments section...
Shameless plug: please read my husband's blog The "D" Spot...
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