What in the world is Louise Smith thinking? How many times does that area have to be cleaned up for free? I take that back it isn't going to be free. There are going to be members of public works, Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance and the Salisbury Police Department working overtime that day. I am quite confident they won't be "volunteering." This is a typical welfare environment and mentality. If you continue to give handouts they will continue to take. Have you ever noticed when you go to parks and/or zoos there are signs that read "Don't Feed the Animals?" This is for a reason, if you continue to feed the animals they will continue to become dependent on you and won't fend for themselves. If that area is in that bad of shape that it needs to be cleaned up every two months then it is time to allow NSCC to do their jobs and issue violations. It is obvious this area is a nuisance and these are problem properties. It is time to go after the major violators, the Slum Lords.
Mayor Ireton you promised "Help Is On The Way."
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090530/NEWS01/905300341/1002/Our+Towns
Council president to host cleanup
SALISBURY -- City Council President Louise Smith plans to host another neighborhood cleanup in the Church Street and Doverdale neighborhoods June 6.
Smith said she is looking for more volunteers.
The cleanup is set for 9:30 a.m. Volunteers will meet at the Christian Shelter Parking lot on Barclay Street. In case of inclement weather, the event will be canceled.
Call 410-341-3597.
35 comments:
The only clean-up that is going to last is to encourage home ownership. As long as the majority of the residents in the area are transient and have no reason to take pride in where they live, it will be an eyesore.
It's called community building. Rather than whining about the few bucks that it may cost to have City staff involved, you should congratulate Louise Smith for caring enough to trying to clean up a neighborhood.
But you're right, the City should get a lot tougher with landlords. Complying with minimum code standards isn't enough. Put ordinances in place that force them to upgrade their properties. That too is community building.
Sorry, I'll be spending June 6th cleaning the trash out of my own yard that my fellow residents of Doverdale toss into my yard everyday. Maybe if they cleaned up after themselves, we wouldn't need the council prez to sponsor these cleanups. I have some old furniture I want to get rid of, maybe I'll toss it in the street on the night of June 5th. Then the city cleanup effort can clean up my mess.
Actually, when you go to a zoo they do not want you feeding the animals because they are on balanced diets.
The last time we sent my Mother to Rome I asked her to see if I couldn't purchase one of those Pope Mobiles.
I'd LOVE to stand up inside with a microphone, drive through these neighborhoods and yell, clean up your own damn mess, pigs!
I have personally been out there cleaning up other peoples trash/mess and once was enough for me.
If these people can't take care of themselves, screw them! I could see if someone was in a wheel chair like The Fat Man and he couldn't bend over to tie his own shoes, put on a pair of sox, cut his own nasty toe nails, you get my drift, then it might be worth helping them clean the yard they didn't trash on their own.
In the mean time, while Louise Smith tries to pat herself on the back for this project, she should join Tom Stevenson when they do their clean ups and really prove she's worthy.
Besides, when I was on the very first clean up they did in this area, Louise didn't do squat. She's too old, too tired and not in a physical condition to actually do anything but walk down 1/2 a block with an empty plastic trash bag.
anonymous 9:30, that is true but they made a good point. Don't take that away from them.
So much of the trash that this group picks up is of the "lazy consumer" variety that it's going to be a problem forever. It's an indication of the mindset of SOME of the people who live there.
The area is littered with soda cans, cups and bottles, cigarette packs, candy wrappers, fast food trash, etc.
While some Church Street residents are responsible individuals, those who will not litter or dump trash in public places, they are overwhelmed by those who do: people who don't give a damn about what their neighborhood or the one they're traveling through looks like, people whose mothers didn't train them right when they were kids. Does Louise plan on reeducating them? If not, this group is going to be out there every couple of months cleaning up after them, because they're never going to change.
Were I a longtime Church Street area resident, I would be grateful for Smith's efforts up to a point. Sure, you can come around with your volunteers and clean up my neighborhood, but after a while I'm going to be embarrassed that it takes your presence from outside my neighborhood to do it.
It's a social problem. You can change a diaper over and over, but you also have to start toilet training or you'll be changing those diapers forever. What plans do you have for moving toward a proactive plan instead of a reactive one, Louise?
as long as you have a democrat in control this is what you'll get.
Just a pet project Barrie gave Louise to make it look like Louise was busy as council president.
How can it always be that it is the fault of the landlord. Each person is responsible for their own actions. If the property is cleaned up by "volunteers" and it is trashed again a week later what makes it any different if the landlords clean it up. The problem is that most of the people throwing the trash are scum. THEY are the ones who should be charged with littering. You rent to them and their kids throw litter and tear up the neighborhoods. You try to prove that they threw the garbage and try to evict them and you are wasting your money in a useless court system slanted against the landlord. Many of these people are animals. It wouldn't matter if you gave them a home in Nithesdale. In a month the neighborhood would be trash. Wake up and smell the coffee.
I helped a buddy empty out his business off odd stock and such down there the other day and the crack-heads,alcoholics and whores were everywhere. I had to lock my vehicle when I was only ten feet or so away in the building. It takes alot more than picking up trash to rid society of its own garbage. For some people this world isnt ever going to be right, its just the way it is. These are not home-owners. they are renters. Make the LANDLORDS clean up the mess they have created themselves. Heck they all got rich off of this and ruined communities in the process. I aint cleaning up sh@t for them.
I don't think it is the landlords throwing residents trash all over the neighborhood, could it possibly be the lazy lowlifes themselves??? You are correct on these regular clean-ups though, if it keeps getting done for them , they have no incentive to do for themselves.
While this continuing cleanup of these areas is a commendable effort, it's going to have to continue indefinitely. There are too many people who "stay at" this neighborhood who don't give a damn about anything but themselves and will try to bring everything and everyone to their level. It's a social problem.
You can change a diaper again and again, Louise, but there comes a time when you have to do some toilet training, or you're going to be changing that diaper again and again. The cleanups at Church Street are reactive, not proactive.
You say you're looking for more volunteers. Get more of the kids that live there. Retrain them.
Fatman can't even pee without sitting down, he hasn't seen his wee wee in decades.
Instead of complaining about people doing something positive why don't you pitch in and help. You claim to care about the community but you don't roll your sleeves up and get dirty. If it were a photo op or something clean you would be the first one there acting like you were concerned.
Don't just do the high profile jobs, a community servant does the dirty stuff too.
anonymnous 9:57, perhaps you don't read very wekk. I did get out there and I did clean up these neighborhoods. I'll not do it again because I agree, they become dependent on us doing so.
What about you anonymous, too afraid to state your name? Clearly you have never lifted a finger, perhaps because of a physical disability Fat Man?
Landlords. Good idea. While they don't live in the houses they own in this and other grimy neighborhoods, they still are responsible for the same things that resident homeowners are: keeping yards, sidewalks and gutters clean of trash, debris and weeds. While they may not live there, they still are the homeowners. If you can't do it yourself, or get your tenants to be responsible, then there's nobody left but the City to clean up after them. But where's the money going to come from?
Maybe it's time to consider each one of these rental houses a business entity in itself, and tax it as such: not just tax the landlord for his business but for each of the sites he does business in, which number about 5500 in Salisbury. (Let's see, 5500 x, let's say, $2 per month for each $100 you take in for rent? With a rental fee of an average of $800 per month that would bring in about $2,110,000 per year.) With that money, the City could afford another street sweeper and pay the overtime to Public Works for additional cleaning. We all know that the Public Works people could use the extra income. How would you like them apples, SAPOA?
they should do what they do in my town.
if your grass it to tall, if you have trash and/or a junked-up yard you will get a letter from the city to fix the problem in X amount of days or the city will come and fix it for you at an astronomical fee, if you don't pay they attach the property.
I live in a different town but do know what it's like to have a neighbor toss out soda cans and fast food trash onto the yard instead of taking them a few extra feet to the trash cans. When the wind blows I end up having this trash in my yard. Living in a wheelchair makes it impossible to clean up on my own. Talking to the neighbor about it is like talking to a tree, nothing is done. When I have company, they are the ones who end up cleaning my yard. We've started dumping the trash onto the neighbor's doorsteps. Does this help? NO! The neighbor ends up walking over it to get inside. There is trash on the doorsteps from over a month ago.
And a good sweeping of the majority of city council members
Instead of continually cleaning this neighborhood maybe someone should take a look at the Salisbury boat ramp area,discraceful
Mr. Albero you need to take your camera to the boat ramp and forward the pix to Mr. Ireton.
OMG 9:25 and 9:47 are so right on target-Doverdale was a halfway stable working class area when I was a kid,now its predominantly Section 8 rentals and boy does it show.....they just throw crap right out in the street-I can recall picking up half-rotten crab shells(they cant afford rent but they can eat steamed crabs!),beer bottles and sh*tty baby diapers out of the gutter after some wild weekends.These cleanup crusaders mean well but sadly things will be back to slummy the next day.
Its not just an issue of homeownership but pride-period.I rented my home when I lived there but I took care of my lawn and all-its a matter of personal responsibility and respect.
"Help is on the way"-- but when does it arrive? The city is still dirty, Webster is still the chief, there appears to still be some backstabbing in the fire dept,and the guy that shot Ted Shea is still on the loose.
The disgraceful boat ramp is the county's, not the city's even tho it's in the city.
I wouldn't help Louise Smith look for her teeth!
The landlords need to take some responsibility they do own the property. If the renters wont keep it clean raise their rent so you can hire someone to clean it up. We are not teaching these people anything by cleaning up their messes. We have an entire prison full of people sitting on their butts, get them out there picking up trash. Im sure there are many people that can't get out and do it on their own, again we have prisoners sitting on their butts that we are paying to feed, house, clothe. Maybe if we made prisons a HORRIBLE place to live these idiots would straighten up. Everyone else must work to take care of what they have so they can, have a place to live and put food on the table it's time to stop with all the free hand OUTS!. Im all for a hand up but Im sick and tired of the hand OUTS.
Joe
I found this story while surfing. In Ohio they arrested a guy for cutting the grass in the park when it became a foot time. Here is the link.
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2009/05/30/front/doc4a201f025281e192098860.txt
Anonymous said...
I wouldn't help Louise Smith look for her teeth!
3:33 PM
Now that is some funny Sh!t.....
How many other city's in this nation have such a high ratio of 75% Slumlord and 25% Homeowner?
i can bring a D9 dozer and a few dump trucks. i wouldnt go into that area on a bet.
To Bob or whoever you are. The problem isn't with the few landlords the problem is with the majority SLUMLORDS and you are probably one of them. Heck, I bet you are that woman slumlord that lives in Fruitland and attacked Mr. Albero and Mr. Ireton on the fatmans blog.
It is high time the slumlords take responsibility and own up to the problem. THEY created this problem so they should be held responsible. They need to be slapped with fines daily until this problem is remedied. There needs to be better legislation created to allow code enforcement. There needs to be better code enforcement officers hired and make them do their jobs. There needs to be inspection sweeps again of neighborhoods, by the way what happened to those rental inspection sweeps? There needs to be annual inspections of these problem properties. There needs to be criminal citations to the property owners if possible.
It is time to clean up our city. Help is on the way and that doesn't mean Louweasel going out to the Doverdale Ghetto and picking up their trash for them.
Increase the rental fee's to $100 per unit per year to cover the costs of public works doing their job and keeping it clean. This is an underfunded code and compliance problem.
Tom has 8 employees to cover 1050 rental units in Salisbury. Then there are homeowners and busineses that fall under their jurisdiction.
Increasing rental fees will only hurt those who already pay more than 25% of their income in rent,those people are barely hanging on by a thread now.
Rental inspections aren't cheap. You can be charged $100 by a refrigeration repairman to tell you your refrigerator can't even be fixed.
The money has to come from somewhere and $25 a year isn't enough for a yearly rental inspection.
What does it cost to have the police and code and compliance go to the Travel Trift Inn, do a complete inspection and close parts of it down? Is that business even being fined enough to cover the costs of the periodic inspections?
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