  Justbeamensch Member Username: Justbeamensch Post Number: 49 Registered: 07-2006 |
Belle Isle is our mystical Mother. We need to celebrate her and take care of her. | ||
Jenay Member Username: Jenay Post Number: 169 Registered: 06-2005 |
A poster for the Belle Isle Love-In from 1967...  | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7167 Registered: 12-2003 |
Poster graphics just aren't the same, now that drug use is discouraged in the creative workspace. Mensch, from whence (or wherece) does this inspiration come?! | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 79 Registered: 11-2005 |
I saw a great example of that today. I was walking with my dog on the newly resurfaced trails by the point and I saw a couple with a plastic bag going along and picking up trash as they walked. If we would all just take a plastic bag with us as we walked out on the trails it would make a world of difference. I have always personally wanted to put new garbage cans around the city that just have a simple Message: Help Keep Detroit Clean! The response I have gotten is that A good amount of the litters can't read but I feel that this could make an impact and make people tink twice before throwing their burger King out the window. I saw signs like this in Albany, New Yorks Parks and felt like it made a difference. | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 297 Registered: 07-2005 |
I think it should be more like: "Help Keep Detroit Clean!  " I think it's a good idea. I'm not a littererologist, so I don't know if it would work though. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 10 Registered: 11-2006 |
I just adopted a street where I live and every couple of weeks my friends and I get bags from the City and go pick up trash. We leave the full bags and they come pick them up. You get the name of your organization on a sign saying that you adopted it, which is nice if you want that kind of recognition. The best part is that the City provides the bags and the pick up. I guess the COD may not have the money to give out trash bags and make signs, but surely some organization or group of friends would "adopt" the streets on Belle Isle? What a great way to get together with friends, maybe barbeque when you're done, and have a feeling of accomplishment and pride. | ||
Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 137 Registered: 05-2006 |
Keeping places where you live clean, whether it be city parks, the street in front of your house or your own backyard, is something that should be taught during childhood. Unfortunately, the majority of Detroiters never seemed to have learned this lesson. | ||
Genesyxx Member Username: Genesyxx Post Number: 620 Registered: 02-2004 |
Any chance of a skate park on Belle Isle? It'd be nice to bring people in, even if it is to loiter (like there isn't enough of that going on already). | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 692 Registered: 11-2005 |
Not just a Detroit problem. There are plenty of slobs in the burbs too. I pick up other people's trash where I live quite often. | ||
Beadgrl Member Username: Beadgrl Post Number: 55 Registered: 07-2006 |
I just kills me to see people just out and out litter. My BF (YakTown) and I are geocachers and often take trash bags out while we cache. I makes me wonder how these people were raised? Think of it this way...would you like your children or even your mother to see you littering? Horrid example for the children and i'm sure your mother would give you a good whippin' for it! | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7184 Registered: 12-2003 |
After seeing The Corporation last night at Mudflap's Conspiracy Theory Brew & View in Twingo's...littering is a symptom of a deeper ill. It is the 'disposible society' syndrome we MUST directly work against. We'll see how well we do as litter decreases. Picking up other's trash is actually the spark or the start...people WILL notice. Same with things as 'silly' as flower boxes and other colorful signs of life. Reminds me of the colorful signs of life all throughout downtown...driving my cousin back to Corktown through Campus Martius at something like 3:30 in the morning we got an eyeful of the city lit up all pretty, but with almost NOBODY on the street. We saw perhaps six others out then, everyone walking! The city felt more energetic and alive than I've ever perceived...and absolutely beautiful. | ||
Magnasco Member Username: Magnasco Post Number: 173 Registered: 10-2003 |
One of the things I loved when visiting friends in the DC area was a combo garbage-can/bag-dispenser for picking up behind dogs. Saw it in several places. What a great idea. | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 854 Registered: 03-2006 |
Agreed Justbeamensch. Great poster Jenay. Gannon, I think most people litter because they are lazy and there are few repercussions -- but the sheer amount of disposable material in our society surely contributes to the litter problem. Urbanoutdoors, I love the point. The new trails are great aren't they! No more crumbling asphalt! | ||
Corktownmark Member Username: Corktownmark Post Number: 228 Registered: 12-2004 |
Think you nailed it Gannon. The throw away nature of commerce and the products we buy cause as much litter as "the way we were raised". I see all kinds of litter but deposit bottles are picked up pretty fast. We do need to be sure that we leave a place cleaner then we found it though. That is just being fair the the person who comes by next. | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 855 Registered: 03-2006 |
More biodegradable litter would help too. More paper wrappers and less plastic. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7191 Registered: 12-2003 |
Most of my stuff comes with bio-wrappers...banana skins, orange peel, coffee grounds...I think I put out one bag of trash a month, if that. Guinness cans they take back. Guys at Rafal think I'm nuts, 'recycling' my Free Trade Espresso pouches until they're destroyed. "Local" micro-recycling is the best, use the stuff you have again rather than tossing it. Don't toss something you might have to run out and buy again later. It only gets tough when your place starts to look like one of those obsessive-compulsive NYC apartment hoarder's. Another beauty of loft living, I'm finding amazing uses for odds and ends that would be anyone else's trash. Did I just say that?! | ||
Justbeamensch Member Username: Justbeamensch Post Number: 51 Registered: 07-2006 |
Maybe I stayed too long at Woodstock but I would love to see the roads in the woods closed to cars and make it bikes and hikers only. There are some world class potholes in there now. Maybe turn them into nature trails? | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 1497 Registered: 06-2004 |
Introducing deposits on all beverage bottles, a la Maine, would help a lot. Imagine all the liquor bottles being picked up. I'd be up for a tax on all fast food restaurants to cover the clean up of the packaging carried away from them. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7211 Registered: 12-2003 |
It would be interesting to take a reasonable poll of the trash on the streets. All it would take would be a statistical sample plan, and a few runs out with cameras...then back to a place where you can count the percentage of corporate branding embellishing our streets. Has anything like this ever been done?! I cannot believe contemporary anthropologists haven't already looked at that...I know they go through landfills. Surely this has been done before. That is a different class altogether...but it would be interesting to compare the branding that makes it to a landfill as opposed to that which blows around the open. It could possibly indicate a greater level of responsibility for cleanup costs. I think both are great ideas, Lilpup. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 11 Registered: 11-2006 |
Taco Bell won during our trash pick up. Lots of little sauce packets. They must just sail beautifully out of an open car window! All the other FF joints were well represented too. In two hours, 9 of us picked up 12 large trash bags full (approx. 200 pounds) along a road about 1/4 mile long. You can't stop people from littering, but you can pick it up. That's my motto. | ||
Magnasco Member Username: Magnasco Post Number: 179 Registered: 10-2003 |
Pardon my reluctance to accept that motto. That is like saying you can't stop other crimes as well, like assault, copper theft, and murders. I think the issue suffers from the same problem that the others I mentioned above, and that is inadequate police enforcement. I bet there were those who said that we could never get compliance on seat-belt use, yet now the only ones who don't wear them are the police because noone will ticket them. Solid laws matched with solid enforcement. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7216 Registered: 12-2003 |
I took a long walk late last night, unable to resist this late-fall warmth (forgetting that they forcast rain)...and midway through it I remembered this conversation. Started looking down, but really looking...not just making sure some pack dog (or privately-owned feral) or homeless person didn't leave any sidewalk mines along with checking that the manholes are covered. Didn't have a trash bag with me, but I did start tracking the corporate branding on all the trash I passed. Didn't even know we had a Tim Horton's nearby...but I found pretty much every major represented (except Burger King, of course). There was some brand of coffee that appears oddly popular, when I return to pick up the cups I'll let you know the brand (give me a break, it was late) Time to do a photo series of the true billboards of corporate capitalism... | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7217 Registered: 12-2003 |
Magnasco, You would win that bet. Obviously, laws don't 'stop' bad behavior, some still choose to do it without considering the consequences. Certainly, it can CURB the behavior...especially when coupled with big advertising dollars and a SOFT and staggered-increase application law... ...but I argue that this doesn't work with all situations. Compliance rewards for those seat belt laws are very different...it is logical to wear them because the greatest majority of users will benefit during accidents. Tell me the same exists for copper theft. They won't have the same success, partly because they'll never reach this target market since they don't have television to hammer any new anti-scrapper law hundreds of times each hour on every channel. (tell me the same could ever even be approached with personal-use prohibitions and other behavioral modification attempts) There is more to consider with seat belt requirements. I'm still concerned over the implications of issuing such a direct law against Darwin's dynamics. Cheers! | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 87 Registered: 11-2005 |
Anyone know if there would be a way to petition the city or semcog or something to extend the current BI bike pathe for the length of Grand BLVD? | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 14 Registered: 11-2006 |
Magnasco, I understand your thoughts, but I wonder if you aren't wanting to live in a communist country. We have freedoms that allow us to throw a piece of garbage on the ground. We also have the freedom to dislike it and pick it up. The litter-er is no worse than us. We may leave the water running when we brush our teeth, or other offenses. The seatbelt law was brought on by insurance companies and those wanting to save money after car accidents. I worry that 1984 is closer than we know. I still stand by my motto. And I think you would feel better about things if you just picked up a few pieces of trash every day and said, "well, I did my piece". Thanks for letting me debate. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 1498 Registered: 06-2004 |
"We have freedoms that allow us to throw a piece of garbage on the ground" not usually - littering is illegal in most of the US and has been for some time - that makes the litterbug a lawbreaker | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 15 Registered: 11-2006 |
Yes, we do have that freedom. Singapore does not have that freedom. Do you want to live in Singapore? Come on, it's not that big if a deal. Trash on the ground in America is an eyesore, not much else. Don't walk past it if you hate it, pick it up and put in in a receptacle. Many bigger fish to fry. Love that you care enough to do something about it! | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 27 Registered: 07-2006 |
Kathinozarks, Yes, you do have that freedom. But you have that freedom to the same degree that you have the freedom to commit any crime. What comes with that freedom is accepting responsibility and punishment if you are caught. The only difference between here and Singapore is the degree of punishment. There, you will probably have a severe punishment, whereas ours would be a small fine, or something like that. In either place, though, you have the freedom to toss garbage on the ground. | ||
Bob_cosgrove Member Username: Bob_cosgrove Post Number: 441 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yes, we in Michigan like everywhere have our problem with dispoables, be they paper, bottles, trash, junk, etc. But, thanks to Michigan's refundable bottle law returnables we have fewer beer cans, plastic & glass bottles discarded on our streets and in our parks. And where they do exist they are often picked up by those needing money. Too bad the law doesn't apply to many fruit, water and plastic bottles. If you want to see what a State without a bottle law is like, stop and look at any Interstate Interchange in Ohio - you'll see all kinds of beer and pop bottles. The bottle law in Michigan was fought by the bottlers, bottle manufacturers, grocery chains and party stores, since it added to their workload and expense, but fortunately our public voted for it. In Ohio, the home of Owens-Illinois and Anchor Hocking - both makers of glass and plastic bottles - and others, a lot of money was spent to defeat a similar law. Bob Cosgrove | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 30 Registered: 10-2006 |
I don`t know how many ex-Boy Scouts there are out there,but we were taught to leave a camp site better than we found it. We would police ouf areas on the Sunday mornings before driving home. This together with the smack upside the head when my mom saw any such BS like littering really left an indelible mark on my character. I couldn`t throw a piece of paper on the street if my life depended on it. Upbringing,or the lack thereof, is the key and not legislature because then it gets reduced to "it`s only illegal if you get caught"! |
