Posted on 02/15/2005 4:02:09 AM PST by ninonitti
| It's time for Boston to own up to the ugly reality: We are a city of pigs.
Drive around town and see for yourself. Up and down Dorchester Avenue yesterday, the gutters were clogged with every kind of debris imaginable: men's shoes, fruit, beer bottles, losing lottery tickets, Dunkin' Donuts cups, cigarette butts.
But it's not just a Dorchester problem. Charles Street on Beacon Hill, the bastion of upper-crust boutiques, low-key restaurants, and gaslit street lamps, looked as if it had just been attacked. A half-eaten take-out meal spilled from a plastic bag in a snowbank outside the 7-Eleven store, a trash barrel just a few feet away. Trash clogged sewer drains and blew across the middle of the sand-strewn road.
Along Newbury Street, the city's premier shopping thoroughfare in Back Bay, garbage was spilling from virtually every one of the city-owned barrels, tumbling into gutters and sewer drains or simply stepped on by the steady stream of passersby. A Neiman Marcus bag sat crushed in the middle of the intersection with Exeter Street. Starbucks cups, candy wrappers, Red Bull cans were stuck in bushes, strewn across small lawns, and kicked into the street.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The mayor needs a "partnership"?
What he needs is Public Works people who can operate a broom and shovel.
I saw that recently. Bourbon Street in New Orleans the morning after Mardi Gras. I bet they got it cleaned up quick though.
As someone who lived in the environs of Boston for many years, I can say without a doubt that the guiding principle of the bleeding heart liberals there is "F your neighbor". One of the surest ways to understand the spirit of a place is to observe the courtesies (or lack thereof) that Russell Kirk called "the unbought graces of life". The mean spirited qualities of the people in the Boston area come shining through in how they drive.
While they're hauling the trash, maybe they can haul the human trash who panhandle in front of almost every retail store in the Back Bay. Perfectly healthy people, working in shifts, who stand there rattling their styrofoam cups and acting like doormen that you did not ask for. And they do this because the pinhead liberals who live in this city go out of their way to give them quarters when they are out shopping on Newbury Street, just to encourage the panhandlers to hang around. End of morning rant.
Hi ZS -- I just moved to Boston last summer -- oh, we could have a great conversation on Boston drivers -- and pedestrians too, for that matter. Unmatched anywhere else in the US for thick-skulled oblivion to their surroundings. The concept of not blocking the intersections is simply unknown in Boston.
Why is this a surprise? Boston coerced the nation's taxpayers to clean up Boston Harbor even though folks in Missouri or North Dakota did not make it dirty. Bonus points, rich liberals live in Boston so of course they can't be expected to pay for it. Second example is the Big Dig, now known as the Ted and Esther Williams Tunnels. Ted's fine, but Esther's making a splash. Again, national taxpayers have to pay for an ill conceived plan to drown or suffocate drivers so that the few rich liberal pedestrians don't have to see anything. To the tune of what, $15 Billion?
The responsible are not responsible.
The not responsible are responsible, but if anything goes wrong, hey, don't blame them because they are not responsible.
Well when the limosine goes fast enough you don't see all the this clutter. That's why Teddy and John F don't mind that much. Bet there is none of this outside the Heinz-Kerry townhouse that got all those special dispensations (against city rules) for "rennovations", etc.
My mother came to America from Japan after WWII. Her first impression of America and Americans was that we were filthy. That view was moderated a little when my father was stationed in Paris in the mid-50's. By comparison, American standards of cleanliness seemed almost Japanese when stacked up next to the average Frenchman....
Yep, we are clean compared to the French -- and the Italians from what I saw on my last trip. (I advise you to bring plenty of Depends so as not to have to visit a public convenience in Italy).
I blame a generation that has not taught their children that Mommy will not be following them everywhere with a broom, nor will the Guatamalan Nanny.
We were there in the 60's and I've visited a few times since.
Paris is immaculate compared to Boston. This place is on a par with Camden NJ.
Menino has armies of hacks writing parking and trash tickets and no one cleaning the streets.......what's white and yellow and sleeps 2? a Public Works truck
That can't be because MA is liberal and liberals care about the environment. I'm sure the trash is being thrown down by the few conservatives that live there.
They did move a fire hydrant for the Heinz-Kerrys but I'll bet they haven't been in town to notice the trash, probably off skiing in the Rockies or windsurfing in the Caribbean
Well, I haven't been in Boston since 1994. It seemed just as clean (or as dirty) then as it did back in the 70's. Sounds like it's gotten worse.
B-b-b-but, lefties care about the environment sooooo much! Just not their immediate one.
There was a "save the water" office near where I used to work. All the young volunteers came on the bus or rode their bikes or walked, but would stand outside and smoke their guts out (guess you need clean water, but not clean lungs), then throw their butts on the sidewalk and into the street. Very classy and consistent with their rabid beliefs!
Every time I watched the EPA jump on somebody’s case I always wondered how many EPA supporters were from Boston.
I was in Boston yesterday, and everything written above is basically true. I rode the "T" in from Quincy, and was appalled at the clutter on the train. The only thing different from the past is that there was no smoking in the stations or the trains.
Every Spring, the Mayor bemoans the fact that Federal money isn't available for him (Menino) to hand out to lazy kids to pick up trash that has piled up throughout the city. Don't even suggest that city employees should be doing this. As has been the case in previous years, one of the Congressional Delegation will get prime time coverage for "bringing home the bacon", thus assuring Menino of an opportunity to hand out red jackets to the not so ambitious kids who will spend a few Saturdays, getting paid for the photo ops.
BTW, the potholes this year are big enough to swallow up small cars....
Richard
All the posters here are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. I grew up in a housing project in a Boston neighborhood during 1959 - 1976.
I NEVER understood the mentality of just thowing trash on the ground, on the sidewalks, in hallways and or on the front stoops of the residences. Disgusting! God, I blessed to have gotten out of that ceasepool....I've been a RED STATER now some twenty-nine years and to be fair we have some problems in Raleigh and the South in general as well. I just returned from putting some outgoing mail in my mailbox; I came back with a plastic bag full of trash (I carry a plastic bag to the mailbox when I post my mail in the mornings!).
.....who can operate a broom and shovel.....
Can? Will operate a broom od shovel is more like it.
Workers unions prohibit manual labor.
My biggest gripe with Boston is the people, the trash stays in Boston, and as long as I don't go back, it has no impact on my life. Unfortunately, Bostonians travel.
Bostonians are by far the worst bigots I have ever met, they make Alabama natives look urbane. Your typical Bostonian has complete disdain for anyone not from Massassasaasssasachusetts.
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