Posted on 04/20/2011 10:36:09 AM PDT by piperpilot
I have a long commute. I travel on surface roads to and from my job in DC every day. All those hours spent sitting at traffic lights affords me plenty of time to observe my surroundings. Everywhere from the District through the Maryland suburbs of Chevy Chase, Kensington, Silver Spring and Olney, median strips have been left to high grass, weeds, storm debris and leaves. They are mowed only two to three times during the prime growing season, and when they are mowed, the overly long grass is blown out into the street where it becomes a hazard for drivers, particularly if it rains. They have become an eye sore and, to me, signify a much more ominous development: social decline Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, county budgets are tight. But when a city or town loses pride in its appearance, what will follow next? Why don't the citizens of these areas take the initiative to pick up where the county has failed them? Why? Sadly, the answer is apathy and a lack of a sense of community identity. Even more outrageous, if citizens did take action to clean up the median strips, they undoubtedly would be told by county authorities to cease and desist out of concerns about liability or violating regulations about work by private citizens.
Take note the next time you drive. What you see just may dishearten you.
probably a sign of fewer Central American immigrants in the area lately
It costs less to adopt a highway in China or Sudan than it does in the US.
Nope it’s a sign of public union power to be lazy.
Olney used to be a nice town.
I had a business there in the 80’s. That was when they widened Georgia to a divided highway.
I also remember when 108 and 97 was a 4 way stop.
Our Community Organizer needs to organize some lawn mowers......
Wow, that was a long time ago. I’ve only been driving through there from Howco to DC for the last 10 years.
They are replacing the trees and grass with orange tiles here.
maybe thry could use all the money used to support illegal criminals (but i repeat myself) and in-state tuition.
I bet if you tried to go clean it, you’d get in trouble, too.
“Volunteer cleanup in parks seen by city union as threat”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2707484/posts
Meanwhile, we've paid for our infrastructure dozens of times over, it's just that those dollars no longer exist because they were placed in the general coffers, and spent on other things. Maintaining medians (in many cases) is a discretionary spend. That's why we see so many "adopt-a-highway" areas, which while nice, only go so far.
But yes, you're probably correct. Medians are a leading indicator of a society--certainly a government in decline.
It is a sign of economic decline. Ignore GDP. Look around your town. If things are getting nicer, you have economic growth. Worse? Economic decline.
I've said that if we shipped the illegals back where they came from we wouldn't have to build new infrastructures. There'd be less road congestion so less roads are needed and less maintenance and certainly few accidents. There'd be a lot less pull on the sewage systems, fire and police departments. Schools wouldn't have to raise taxes and sell bonds and they wouldn't have to dumb down the education of US citizens to pamper to others. When one in 8-10 people is illegal, your country is in the toilet.
>>they undoubtedly would be told by county authorities to cease and desist out of concerns about liability or violating regulations about work by private citizens.<<
Without a doubt.
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