Jersey Mike

I just got home from participating in the Friends of Midtown Fall Cleanup- a seasonal event which is comprised of a team of neighborhood volunteers who traverse the streets of Midtown and parts of Uptown cleaning up other peoples litter.

The route that my team was assigned was both sides of Second street between Harris and Maclay; my team members were a nice older couple named Ralph and Barbara. (I actually have a friend from Long Island named Ralph Barba. Odd.)

ANYWAY- as we were, literally, on our hands and knees picking up chip bags, beer cans, cigarette butts, random household trash that must have trickled out of curbside trash cans because what other reason would there be to find chicken bones and empty shredded cheese bags while picking up trash on Second street, I had a few thoughts and observations cross my mind.

And like it or not, I’m going to share the aforementioned thoughts with you now:

• It’s great that so many people participated in the cleanup and was a fun way to interact with the neighborhood while “doing our part”, but sad, at the same time, that it was even necessary.

I say “sad” because, ultimately, I’d think that people- regardless of income bracket or living situation- would want to live in a clean, cared-for enviornment. Perhaps it’s just the way that I was raised, but I do believe that we can manifest our own idea of utopia- but I don’t know anyone who would want crack baggies and Newport boxes lining the streets of their utopia. But this is our utopia and, darn it- we’ll pick up those crack baggies and Newport boxes for ya. No, really…go ahead. We’ll get it.

• Perhaps these clean ups would be a great way to both punish AND teach juvenile offenders.

A fifteen year old kid from the city gets caught breaking into a car. Or starting a fight in school. Or maybe even littering. He or she appears in front of a judge who decides their punishment for their crime. And maybe instead of financially punishing a juvinile offender who probably doesn’t have a job or any money, we make him go out and pick up trash for a couple of days. And maybe next time he goes to break into a car, instead of throwing that empty chip bag on the street, he’ll deposit it into a trash can so he doesn’t have to pick it up again the next time he gets caught. Maybe the courts already do this kind of thing- but judging by the amount of trash the group picked up, they’re probably not doing it in Midtown.

• Where were our local politicians this go-round?

I know that various council members and administration employees have participated in these clean ups in the past- and perhaps I just didn’t recognize some of the people in the group who MAY be city employees- but what ever happened to “leading by example”? This took two hours. And the last half hour was time spent BS-ing with my fellow litter removers. But not a single city council member was able to make it today? I’m not singling anyone out on this- just observing.

I had a surpisingly enjoyable time participating in this neighborhood clean up. I had to literally force myself out of bed at 8:30 on a Saturday morning-but once we got into it, it was very fulfilling.

Sure, one neighborhood cleanup isn’t going to make our part of the city all sparkley and shiny- and as one the participants, Ben, remarked- it’s almost more symbolic than anything. Symbolic of the fact that the citizens of Midtown are taking matters into their own hands. Symbolic that people of varied backgrounds can work together for the good of the neighborhood. And symbolic that there is power in numbers. And working together, we will make this City a better place.

Great work, Friends of Midtown. I’ll certainly be participating in more of these in the future.