The current national park philosophy, adopted by Allentown, is Carry In/Carry Out. In our environmentally woke time, the belief is that people will take their trash with them, after they guzzled their sports drink. Allentown accordingly removed most of the trash containers from the parks, instead installing larger capacity containers, which only have to be emptied once a week. While previously one man and a pickup truck removed the bags, now a dump truck, two men and crane are used to extract the 8ft. long bags from a pit below the containers.
It all sounds wonderful, until you drive through downtown Allentown any Monday morning...It looks like there was a parade every weekend. The litter in Allentown is astounding...Many throw their trash down even if there is a container within several feet. Parents throw down their trash in front of their children.
Rather than less trash containers in our parks, we should have installed more. There is nothing Allentown can learn from national park bureaucrats. Our traditional park system was second to none.
above reprinted from August of 2021
ADDENDUM JUNE 7, 2022: Early on Monday mornings, a park employee fills large containers gathering all the trash tossed down on both sides of Cedar Park over the weekend. Although the department did add some containers back since the above post was written last year, littering is a reality in the new Allentown. As the department adds new events and recreational features to our parks, this problem will only increase.
ADDENDUM JULY 26, 2023: Mayor Tuerk, in keeping with both your inclusionary and bi-lingual policies, please don't be bashful about Do Not Litter signs in both English and Spanish, No Bote Basura.
ADDENDUM JULY 23, 2024:Mandy Tolino, the park director, is beginning to see the light, or should I say the litter. She announced that the parks will have more trash containers and that seasonal No Litter signs would be installed in both English and Spanish. Add even a few more containers for good measure, and leave those signs up all year.
This is Matt's new version of Allentowns gifted park system and his street thugs. UFC fighting at cedar beach this juneteenth weekend causing traffic jam on Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteThe park system is very much out of whack. Cedar Beach was made into a "designation" without proper supervision. People with some insight (myself, Glen Klein) have been excluded from the table.
ReplyDeleteCedar Beach is being “loved to death”, yawn, that’s such old news.
DeleteThe ability of Allentown City Hall - and particularly this Administration- to overlook the obvious is amazing. More trash receptacles clearly are the way to fight litter, yet somehow that escapes our mayor and his department heads.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, for the upcoming concert in the UT amphitheater, there will likely be more than a dozen TEMPORARY receptacles in the park. Yet go to that same park any other day, and there isn’t a SINGLE receptacle on the amphitheater side of the creek. Does the Mayor and his Parks Department head think that side of the park ISN’T being used except on days of city-sponsored events? I guess so!
If these “leaders” would actually know their parks, they would see that the amphitheater side of the park is used daily by dog-walkers, picnickers, fishermen, and others. Guess what’s, they all produce litter and need convenient receptacles placed PERMANENTLY in the area.
I wish that UT was a lone example of poor management, but you could visit almost any park in the city (don’t even get me started on some of the East Side parks) and find the same situation. The solution seems obvious to everyone except the Mayor.
For a guy who is always out running in the city and constantly posting photos on social media, he sure doesn’t SEE a lot.
It’s not just the Parks and the Parks Department that’s a problem. Go to any downtown neighborhood and the amount of litter is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThe problem in the neighborhoods is also a lack of receptacles, coupled with an explosion in rental properties.
There are far too few pole-mounted receptacles in the city, and the increase in population from rental properties has only made the problem worse. More receptacles are a start at solving the problem, but they need to be placed wisely near high litter areas (like corner stores, vape shops, and other litter-generating areas).
Then we get to the other problems like making sure the receptacles are emptied both regularly and as needed. This didn’t happen in many neighborhoods prior to the Juneteenth holiday, which resulted in many overflowing receptacles by the middle of the weekend. There city should also be more vigorous about writing citations for litter violations and problem properties that are repeat offenders.
Above all, department heads and their employees need to get out of their offices and WALK the neighborhoods. city employees can’t rely on people calling THEM. To anyone looking to solve the litter problem, the issues and solutions become obvious when you’re on the ground in the city’s neighborhoods trying to solve the problem. This should be standard practice for the Recycling Department.
It’s really (at least) a two department problem in the city. As you note, the Parks Department is dropping the ball on the litter issue in the Parks, but Recycling and Solid Waste is dropping the ball everywhere else.
Again, the solutions are simple and obvious, except for those in City Government.
In other related news-fighting breaks out at Cedar Beach.
ReplyDeleteHaving moved from Bethlehem to A-town in 98' the first thing I noticed was the amount of trash everywhere which has only gotten worse year to year. What creates the attitude of many Allentown citizens that the streets are they're trash cans I cannot say. Upbringing would be my number one guess. Some might say income, but when I occasionally cruise thru Bethlehem's lower income spots on the south side or even " the village" I don't see nearly the garbage everywhere. Maybe A-town could do a study on what Bethlehem is doing to keep the trash off the streets, among other things.
ReplyDeleteno.1 they're pigs no. 2 as long as someone is there to clean up after them why not leave trash behind.
ReplyDeleteLitter clean-up could be a natural fit for Promise Neighborhoods. Supposedly, they are out in the neighborhoods every day. If that’s true, take along a plastic trash bag! Fill it and set it out on the curb.
ReplyDeleteBethlehem, Easton and LMT are civilized communities. Allentown is a Third World country.
ReplyDelete