I Am So Frustrated With Houston

[greystone08(returns)]

Why does it seem that in third ward Houston and other parts, there's trash all in the medians of the roads like the city does not have anybody doing trash pick up on the regular. You see anything from old toilet paper rolls, paper plates, paper cups to trash bags to old milk cartons and things of that nature just thrown all in lots and all over the grass. I was even driving down off Bellfort yesterday and saw tons of trash in the middle of the median and a sweet older lady, who happened to live in that area was out there with a large garbage bag picking up the trash. Now isn't that something the City of Houston should be doing for their own city. There is absolutely no reason that any city should accept that. I'm sorry to vent but i just think that a city as important as Houston should always put on its best face and not only when the Superbowl or something comes around

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[firstngoal]

Yep, I agree (w/ Greystone). Many of our major streets and highways are lined with litter. It wasn't always this way... I remember when we had relatives in from out of town many years ago who would comment about how clean the city was. No more.

I share your frustration and, unfortunately, find that its only rare individuals (like the lady in your example) that are putting themselves out there to make a difference. I pick up litter in my neighborhood all the time - and the only support I get are an approving nod from neighbors every now and then. "Gee thanks... think you might want to tell your guests to dispose of their waste properly next time?"

Its time for people to take pride in their home (Houston) - and treat it with respect. There should be very large fines for littering - and that goes to the thousands of smokers out there that I see flick there butts out of their cars each and every day. Drives me up a wall!

[MidtownCoog]

Trashy people are the #1 reason. tw2ntyse7en nailed it!

Print It

[Guest danax]

Don't blame the city, blame the residents.

Simply put: they litter, and don't care.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with you 27. The poorest neighborhoods are the trashiest. I'm neither a sociologist nor a psychologist but it seems to be due to a combination of cultural and educational factors. They grow up with people that litter and so it's a bad habit and no big deal to them. I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and they (not all) litter. I've spent some time in Mexico and down there, they litter. Can't blame the government for that one. You should see the beautiful section of Brays Bayou where it passes through Mason Park after a rain, in fact, I have a picture that I'll post right here Houston trash raft is bid "Bon Voyage" as it begins it's long journey out to sea. Looks like something out of National Geographic. I'm ranting on this a bit but it's one reason I'd like to see the East End gentrify, it will be cleaned up. I am thankful for the city's current anti-trash campaign. Our neighborhood's heavy trash problem got reduced dramatically from one month to the next. The new policy is zero tolerance, a fine the first time by HPD and it also targets "bandit" signs among other things. Some folks just need to be taught that the curb and the city streets are not their personal 24/7 dump.

[MidtownCoog]

The poorest neighborhoods are the trashiest.

While this may be true, trashy people are everwhere. There is one on EVERY street, and they are mobile.

I'll never forget the Soccer Mom in a Lexus who threw all her diapers and Burger King bags out on New Trails Drive in The Woodlands. RIGHT in front of me.

Even "rich" people can be trashy.

[Subdude]

Coog, in cases like that you should lay on your horn so at least she knows she was seen.

Even out in the country where few people live the roads are lined with trash.

[tamtagon]

Littering is so frustrating to me. The government (any level) should not be responsible for (re)developing a more reverant relationship between an individual and a trashcan, but the government should provide unwaivering support helping social groups change the learned behavior of litter bugs.

[greystone08(returns)]

I suppose! I guess that could be my ignorance, but I always thought it would be some sort of city ordinance to hire enough workers for trash pick-up. Why is it bigger and more conjested cities like Chicago have more people doing every-day trash pick up? Or what about the law-offenders who are either in jail or assigned community service to do trash-pick ups. It was just something i happened to notice about some areas in Houston like some 3rd and 5th Ward. And i understand that there are low income families out there but then again, its something to think about because since those hoods are so centrally located, that might be the first thing visitors see and the last thing they remember.

[dbigtex56]

Zero tolerance for littering starts with each of us. I never litter. Never. To my shame, I still smoke; and I'll carry the butt in my hand until I find a trash barrel, or put the stinkin' thing in my pocket.

If I see someone littering, I speak up. This includes people who allow their dogs to defecate, but do not pick up after them. I've found people take me more seriously if I use words like 'defecate' and 'feces' than the more tempting term.

People who drop trash on the street can expect to hear "Excuse me, sir; I think you dropped something." Do not smile while saying this. Perhaps it helps that I'm tall, but I've found it to be quite effective.

[H-Town Man]

Perhaps it helps that I'm tall, but I've found it to be quite effective.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, you've got spurs that jingle jangle jingle.

[2112]

I agree with you 27. The poorest neighborhoods are the trashiest. I'm neither a sociologist nor a psychologist but it seems to be due to a combination of cultural and educational factors. They grow up with people that litter and so it's a bad habit and no big deal to them. I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and they (not all) litter. I've spent some time in Mexico and down there, they litter. Can't blame the government for that one. You should see the beautiful section of Brays Bayou where it passes through Mason Park after a rain, in fact, I have a picture that I'll post right here Houston trash raft is bid "Bon Voyage" as it begins it's long journey out to sea. Looks like something out of National Geographic. I'm ranting on this a bit but it's one reason I'd like to see the East End gentrify, it will be cleaned up. I am thankful for the city's current anti-trash campaign. Our neighborhood's heavy trash problem got reduced dramatically from one month to the next. The new policy is zero tolerance, a fine the first time by HPD and it also targets "bandit" signs among other things. Some folks just need to be taught that the curb and the city streets are not their personal 24/7 dump.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You cannot compare Mexico to Houston. Mexico is TRUE poverty. I mean, the kind of poverty where you ACTUALLy live in a cardboard box. A real cardboard box. It's apples and oranges.

Secondly, its funny how since more hispanics have moved into my area, the homes have actually IMPROVED in appearance. There are manicured lawns and shrubs, flower-beds, etc. Before I moved there 15 years ago, it was a little on the redneck side. And now that it is more ethnic, things have actually gotten much nicer. So here is a case where the opposite is true. Oh, there is always one bad apple in any area, as MidtownCoog explained. But your wholesale generalization may have more to do with poverty than with hispanics. There is a difference.

[ricco67]

I'm inclined to agree with 2112's assessment. I was talking about this in general with an old friend "From the hood" and he bristled at my comments.

In some of the poorer neighborhoods, there simply isn't the "luxury" of having time to tidy up a neighborhood when they're simply trying to survive.

At least, that was the only excuse we could come up with.

Ricco

[2112]

Zero tolerance for littering starts with each of us. I never litter. Never. To my shame, I still smoke; and I'll carry the butt in my hand until I find a trash barrel, or put the stinkin' thing in my pocket.

If I see someone littering, I speak up. This includes people who allow their dogs to defecate, but do not pick up after them. I've found people take me more seriously if I use words like 'defecate' and 'feces' than the more tempting term.

People who drop trash on the street can expect to hear "Excuse me, sir; I think you dropped something." Do not smile while saying this. Perhaps it helps that I'm tall, but I've found it to be quite effective.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is it me? Or does anyone else find this phrase funny?

"...I've found people take me more seriously if I use words like 'defecate' and 'feces' than the more tempting term..."

It's comforting to know there is a more tempting term other than "feces". Strangely, it reminds me of a Jack Nicholson dialogue on "A Few Good Men", where he says: "we used words like honor, code, loyalty..." Only here, we are using words like "defecate" and "feces".

[2112]

I agree with you 27. The poorest neighborhoods are the trashiest. I'm neither a sociologist nor a psychologist but it seems to be due to a combination of cultural and educational factors. They grow up with people that litter and so it's a bad habit and no big deal to them. I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and they (not all) litter. I've spent some time in Mexico and down there, they litter. Can't blame the government for that one. You should see the beautiful section of Brays Bayou where it passes through Mason Park after a rain, in fact, I have a picture that I'll post right here Houston trash raft is bid "Bon Voyage" as it begins it's long journey out to sea. Looks like something out of National Geographic. I'm ranting on this a bit but it's one reason I'd like to see the East End gentrify, it will be cleaned up. I am thankful for the city's current anti-trash campaign. Our neighborhood's heavy trash problem got reduced dramatically from one month to the next. The new policy is zero tolerance, a fine the first time by HPD and it also targets "bandit" signs among other things. Some folks just need to be taught that the curb and the city streets are not their personal 24/7 dump.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, and, saying something like:

[SpaceCity]

I interpret "gentifry" to mean rich folks, not lily white folks.

Perhaps folks with money keep up their yards a bit more, and those with little money do not. It's not a problem of race. It's a problem of economics.

Additionally, when others in your neighborhood keep up their yards, you feel the pressure to do the same. A little positive peer pressure in the poorer areas may help the problem.

(And no, 2112, do not interpret poor to mean Hispanic, Black or some other form of racial bigotry on my part. After all there are poor whites who are filthy. Without poor white folks we wouldn't have any trailer parks. )

[tamtagon]

but I always thought it would be some sort of city ordinance to hire enough workers for trash pick-up.

I agree with dbigtex56, zero tolerance; rather than hiring enough workers to pick up the trash, more enforcement officers should be hired to give citations.

[2112]

I interpret "gentifry" to mean rich folks, not lily white folks.

Perhaps folks with money keep up their yards a bit more, and those with little money do not. It's not a problem of race. It's a problem of economics.

Additionally, when others in your neighborhood keep up their yards, you feel the pressure to do the same. A little positive peer pressure in the poorer areas (and no, 2112, do not interpret poor to mean Hispanic, Black or some other form of racial bigotry on my part) may help the problem.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The optimist in me interpreted the original posting in that benign way originally, until I re-read the entire paragraph. Only then, did I succumb to the conspiracy theorist.

That post:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...findpost&p=8670

[VelvetJ]

And no, it's not the rich driving through the ghetto and dumping their trash, it's the residents of the ghetto that don't properly dispose of their garbage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Uh, I'm trying to figure out why that statement was even introduced. Help me, please.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I take Tex's approach to this. I have no patience for people who casually litter, as if that's what the ground is for. You're in a big city, with lots of amenities and (believe or not) lots of visitors. Things like cleanliness can have an impact on what new businesses or even old businesses may call Houston home.

Have pride. There's no reason for ANY neighborhood in Houston to be infested wtih beer cans (the biggest culprit I see on the medians of some of our streets), Burger King bags, maxi pads (good lord!) and pieces of cardboard boxes like it's a natural part of the landscape.

Here are things I know to be factors, however, in why many neighborhoods' medians and esplanades are clean and why others aren't:

1) Because Houston has so many master-planned communities within its city limits, many neighborhoods are still subject to the maintenance and policing of their individual home owner's association. The stronger and more active the association, the cleaner the neighborhood (including the houses themselves)

2) The city IS to blame for some of it because their street sweeping duties are either non-existent in some neighborhoods (especially those that have been annexed over the last twenty years) or the sweeping schedule is so out of whack that no one knows when it's supposed to take place. Even TxDOT is guilty of this, as they routinely go weeks without cutting or even picking up trash along the Inner-Loop Katy Freeway, a real source of irritation for me).

3) Because of the fact that many of Houston's older neighborhoods have exposed ditches that serve as roadside drainage units, trash builds up inside them after a good rain and is later strewn about by heavy winds that come later on.

4) Some people are just flat out sorry. I've seen people drop a cup from Subway on the ground at a bus stop, despite there being a garbage can less than five feet away from them.

5) The City of Houston (as was reported by KPRC TV last year) can be very laxed about fining residents who allow trash to build up on their property or who engage in activites that go against their deed restriction and yields lots of trash and visual blight.

I suppose you could try to establish (if one is not already established) an oversite department that monitors the various home owner's assocations to make sure that they are overseeing the upkeep of some of the medians/esplanade of their communities but eventually a mindset has to be established in those neighborhoods that have notorious reps for this sort of thing to campaign against littering.

And race/income isn't always an indicator of such behavior because even in some of the neighborhoods near Rice, there are those two or three households here and there that have their fair share of litter or unkempt lawns or what have you.

[MidtownCoog]

Coog, in cases like that you should lay on your horn so at least she knows she was seen.

Oh, I did. I did ;-)

Anyway, lets use Midtown for example. More than once, I saw our neighbors get new large screen TVs, computers, stero equipment, etc.

They unpack it, then throw the box on the street. I figured, well, they'll pick it up tomorrow. We even had cardboard recycling close by.

Well, they did not, and drove right past it for weeks. By that time, I had given up on my trash duties in Midtown. I would actually pick up trash all the time while walking my dog. Even swept the freaking curbs around our townhomes.

These folks were not "poor". Just stupid lazy fools living in metal townhomes.

[largeTEXAS]

stupid lazy fools living in metal townhomes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Metal = evil

Hardi plank = God's children

[HOUCAJUN]

I take Tex's approach to this. I have no patience for people who casually litter, as if that's what the ground is for. You're in a big city, with lots of amenities and (believe or not) lots of visitors. Things like cleanliness can have an impact on what new businesses or even old businesses may call Houston home.

Have pride. There's no reason for ANY neighborhood in Houston to be infested wtih beer cans (the biggest culprit I see on the medians of some of our streets), Burger King bags, maxi pads (good lord!) and pieces of cardboard boxes like it's a natural part of the landscape.

Here are things I know to be factors, however, in why many neighborhoods' medians and esplanades are clean and why others aren't:

1) Because Houston has so many master-planned communities within its city limits, many neighborhoods are still subject to the maintenance and policing of their individual home owner's association. The stronger and more active the association, the cleaner the neighborhood (including the houses themselves)

2) The city IS to blame for some of it because their street sweeping duties are either non-existent in some neighborhoods (especially those that have been annexed over the last twenty years) or the sweeping schedule is so out of whack that no one knows when it's supposed to take place. Even TxDOT is guilty of this, as they routinely go weeks without cutting or even picking up trash along the Inner-Loop Katy Freeway, a real source of irritation for me).

3) Because of the fact that many of Houston's older neighborhoods have exposed ditches that serve as roadside drainage units, trash builds up inside them after a good rain and is later strewn about by heavy winds that come later on.

4) Some people are just flat out sorry. I've seen people drop a cup from Subway on the ground at a bus stop, despite there being a garbage can less than five feet away from them.

5) The City of Houston (as was reported by KPRC TV last year) can be very laxed about fining residents who allow trash to build up on their property or who engage in activites that go against their deed restriction and yields lots of trash and visual blight.

I suppose you could try to establish (if one is not already established) an oversite department that monitors the various home owner's assocations to make sure that they are overseeing the upkeep of some of the medians/esplanade of their communities but eventually a mindset has to be established in those neighborhoods that have notorious reps for this sort of thing to campaign against littering.

And race/income isn't always an indicator of such behavior because even in some of the neighborhoods near Rice, there are those two or three households here and there that have their fair share of litter or unkempt lawns or what have you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

great post. do you know who i can get in contact with regarding the street sweeping on westheimer? i hadn't seen one in years.

[Guest danax]

People who drop trash on the street can expect to hear "Excuse me, sir; I think you dropped something." Do not smile while saying this. Perhaps it helps that I'm tall, but I've found it to be quite effective.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think this would be a great and effective TV ad , if our city were to do something like that. Maybe we could get a former mayor of another city to help, even if he's a bit old now."Excuse me, sir, but I believe you've dropped something"

[Guest danax]

Oh, and, saying something like: “I'd like to see the East End gentrify, it will be cleaned up”, is just a gentile way of saying “I’d like to get the Hispanics out of the area.”  But then again, maybe I just misinterpreted, however.  On this occasion, I would really like to be proven wrong.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do I want to see all of the Hispanics get out of the EastEnd? No, just the ones that are trashing it. Did you see that picture of Mason Park after a rain? And the heavy trash problems that, now that the cops are spanking them, has improved? These aren't racist comments, just observations, and, perhaps other neighorhoods with more white people have the same problems, I don't know, I always seem to live in Hispanic neighborhoods, maybe because I always feel comfortable in them A little background, for what it's worth. 21 years ago I was in Puerto Vallarta, fell in love with a Mexicana, went to Guadalajara to meet her parents, married her, brought her back , have 2 kids who speak fluent Spanish, as I do, thanks to my wife, who spoke no English. Her parents are poor but they welcomed me into their family and, as my suegro says, " Daniel, eres ciento por ciento gringo, pero a la mitad Mexicano", translated, my ex-father in law says I'm 100% gringo but half Mexican. So, basically I love the people, for the most part. I must say the the little cholo sub-culture gets on my nerves sometimes. However, I didn't intend to sugar-coat my words with a glaze of political correctness. Even to this day, my ex-wife (highly intelligent, big heart, but very difficult to get along with) pulls up to her driveway in Spring, gets out of the car, and throws cups, etc on her own front lawn. It's just a bad habit, nothing racial, which I equate to genetic, it's her background, whatever. And, it's the same thing out here in the East End. Really, if you drive around, it's not so bad, but there are some spots that look like shanty towns. One morning I was out front in my yard and my neighbor across the street, he's from Mexico and has been here probably 20 years, was complaining because the city came by and gave him a warning to remove his trash pile bacause it was not heavy trash week. He bitched and moaned and I explained why they did it and that it was probably the Civic Club that called on him. He the said, in a whiny tone, and I quote " but we are Spanish people". In other words, that's the way he is used to living and is surprised that someone complained. Also, some are turning houses into businesses, another habit from Latin America, as I interpret it anyway. I'm sure some of those that are doing that are American born too. Most of the Civic Club here is Hispanic and these trashy people drive them crazy too. As one Hispanic friend /neighbor, who completely rehabbed his house beautifully, and who's next door neighbor has a refrigerator on their front porch to keep flowers in for their home-based flower business said, "they think they're in Mexico". Anyway, I could go on and on. I like living here and, as I thought today, despite the little annoyances, I am very content with my house, neighborhood and East end in general and if nothing ever changed for the better, I could be happy living here until I'm 90. That said, to have it gentrify a bit, which doesn't necessarily mean white people, but more educated, I don't know. I see the East looking more like the West, with a Latin flavor. Cleaner streets and neighborhoods, houses getting fixed up, nicer retail, the same things I think every one of us on this forum want to see more of. The status quo population will not likely create these things. But, as was mentioned in another post, they can learn from seeing positive changes taking place. We need just a touch of new blood to awaken and stimulate those change in the areas I mentioned, and, it's already happening. Carol Alvarado, Adrian Garcia, Felix Fraga, Gracie Saenz, these people are usually all at the meetings out here, and I've been to a few, and they want the same things, they just can't say it as honestly due to political concerns. You want to talk about a trashy neighborhood? Go check out the Near North, where they want to run the MetroRail, Viaduct etc. These leaders want to clean that area up and "reclaim" it for the city, by attracting "new blood" (they will not say that though). It's a dump right now. I was checking out a house for sale on Hardy St, (great turn of the 20th century house, if any adventurers are looking) no one is living there, and there are litterally (a little play on words) so many Bud Light beer bottles on the sidewalk in front of this house, not to mention trash that people just dumped there cause no one lives there, that I had to walk in the street to get past.

OK, I'll leave it at that, for now. I can sure ramble once I get going, sorry.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[MidtownCoog]

Most of the Civic Club here is Hispanic and these trashy people drive them crazy too.

This reminds me of when Chris Rock says "black people hate #*@)@(#".

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[dbigtex56]

Honesty is the best policy.

Haven't we all observed people who are, you know, trashy? And others who are (for lack of a better word) just a little too pissy?

My brother lives in a suburban neighborhood, and maintains his house well. But some of his neighbors were concerned because he doesn't have ChemLawn come by every couple of weeks to spray herbicides on his lawn. If a dandelion or two pokes up, some people freak. He doesn't, and feels that spraying herbicides indiscriminately isn't such a good idea. His lawn is kept mown and neat. A couple of weeds is no reason to get excited.

I'm old enough to remember what America looked like before Lady Bird Johnson. It was she who made people aware that litter and billboards and junkyards are unsightly, and that we can do better. As bad as our streets and highways are today, they are much better than they were 40 years ago. She's an unsung hero.

Call me a liberal. Call me politically correct. But never say I'm not a realist, because I've seen people of all stripes act in similar ways. Mexicans are filthy; so are black people; so are white people. Mexicans take great pride in maintaining that which is theirs. So do black people. So do white people.

I'm old enough to remember going on long trips as a child, and eating lunch in the back seat. Paper napkins, orange peels, Coke bottles got thrown out the window, to join the rest of the litter which lined highways at that time. How trashy! But we - nor anyone else - never gave it a second thought. Not until Lady Bird made her appeal did we reconsider - that our trash was part of the problem, and that everyone is expected to be part of the solution. "Don't Be A Litterbug!"

I think it's not a matter of ethnicity, nor even of economic advantage. It's about education, and we all have a responsibility to teach others what is acceptable - and what isn't.

[editor]

I suppose! I guess that could be my ignorance, but I always thought it would be some sort of city ordinance to hire enough workers for trash pick-up. Why is it bigger and more conjested cities like Chicago have more people doing every-day trash pick up? Or what about the law-offenders who are either in jail or assigned community service to do trash-pick ups. It was just something i happened to notice about some areas in Houston like some 3rd and 5th Ward. And i understand that there are low income families out there but then again, its something to think about because since those hoods are so centrally located, that might be the first thing visitors see and the last thing they remember.

I believe I once read in the Chronicle that there aren't enough volunteers among the incarcerated to go out and pick up the trash. In Texas, for whatever reason, jailers cannot force inmates to go out and pick up trash -- they have to volunteer, and the people in prison are too lazy to do it. Either that, or their living conditions are so comfortable that they'd rather stay behind bars than get some fresh air.