From the Forum – Business Improvement District for U st? Or volunteer litter removal groups?

Photo by PoPville flickr user Clif Burns

Business Improvement District for U st? Or volunteer litter removal groups?:

“Happy New Year, everyone! I wanted to start New Year’s day fresh and good spirits when I woke up on Thursday morning, but I quickly soured when I saw all the garbage and litter floating around U st. (I have a short temper…working on it in the new year).

I realize the benefits of living on U come with some of the burdens of trash, but sometimes the trash lingers for days on the street, becoming an unattractive mix of food wrappers, pizza boxes and leaves. When the wind kicks up, even trash that’s been responsibly thrown away gets blown out since the bins are almost always filled to capacity.

So rather than simply complain, can we come up with a solution, and can we come up with any strategies to implement the solution? A few quick thoughts:
– Could we solicit U st. business & condos to start a business improvement district (much like Golden Triangle or Downtown BID) so there’d be funds for more frequent clean-up efforts? How could we go about getting that started?
– Could we start our own clean-up group? Maybe volunteers meet up every Saturday and Sunday morning to clean up the streets between 14th and 9th streets? (the simplest solution, but perhaps the most difficult to implement). I would provide the coffee!
– Could we ask the city to install garbage bins that have a lid on them, or install the solar powered trash compacter so that at least the garbage thrown away doesn’t pop back out when the wind kicks up?

Any other ideas? Or please chime in if you’re willing to be a clean-up volunteer – that could be the easiest and quickest solution.”

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