I Am So Frustrated With Houston

[editor]

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.

Whenever I see a bandit sign with an 800 number, I make it a point of calling it a few dozen times. It costs them money. It costs them even more money when you call from a payphone. Sometimes you're sent to voice mail or some kind of menu system. Then you can tie up the line for a while and cost them lots of money. Just start the voice mail recording and put the phone down next to the radio until it fills up.

If they want to leave garbage on my street, I'll leave garbage on their voice mail.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Whenever I see a bandit sign with an 800 number, I make it a point of calling it a few dozen times.

I would also think having the number on them would allow the proper authority to get in touch with them so that they can levy fines.

Sadly, I'm hearing that bandit signs are now becoming a problem in Florida, especially in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

[pineda]

There's a particular stretch of road out here along Kuykendahl, between 2920 and Dowdell where signs seem to proliferate at an alarming rate. Any and all builders you can think of, their signs are out in force.

Someone I know who lives in Windrose had decided he had had enough of it, so he made it his mission in life to remove these signs.

Every Friday evening, young men could be seen pulling over to the side of the road in pickup trucks, and grabbing an armload of signs, start planting them about a foot apart from each other all up and down the road.

Every Saturday morning, the Windrose neighbor would pull up, get out, and start collecting these signs and toss them in the back of his truck. He had previously complained to Harris County Pct. 4, but they told him that they don't really have the manpower to enforce anything that happens from Friday to Sunday in this dept., but if he wanted, he could take it upon himself to do it, so he did.

This happened for a couple of months. The sign owners were losing money left and right because of this man's actions. So, they came up with a different plan.

The young men they hired to put the signs out were apparently instructed by the sign owners to jump over barbed wire fencing and dodge cows grazing in the fields to place their signs behind the barbed wire fence, amongst the tall weeds.

The Windrose man saw this and thought about jumping that fence, but then decided against trespassing and bothering the cattle there, never a good idea. He had accomplished his goal of removing the sight-restricting, unsightly builders signs from the medians and along the roadsides. The signs were now well out of view and hidden in the tall grasses.

So when you wonder what can one person do, remember this guy. This is how it starts, with one person who's finally had enough, knows the government can't or won't help him, takes time out of his own day, and does something about it.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[Metro Matt]

What irks me is people that flick their cigarette butts out the window while driving, especially if its at night & one hits your vehicle while behind one of these self centered idiots. That really pisses me off!

[editor]

What irks me is people that flick their cigarette butts out the window while driving, especially if its at night & one hits your vehicle while behind one of these self centered idiots.  That really pisses me off! 

Ditto. I don't understand why smokers think the entire world is their ashtray. More often than not they have zero regard for what they do with their trash.

Remember back in the 1970's and early 80's when the world was filled with soda/beer can tabs? People would pull them off and throw them anywhere. I remember as a kid my friends would collect them at the beach and string them into long necklaces. We would also very frequently end up cutting our feet on ones that were hidden in the sand. Today, those are gone and the world is every so slightly better off for it -- visually, mostly. Now imagine a world without cigarette butts and packets littering the streets. Again, it's a better place. Next on my list -- plastic grocery bags. Now our trash is airborne!

[debmartin]

"Remember back in the 1970's and early 80's when the world was filled with soda/beer can tabs? People would pull them off and throw them anywhere. I remember as a kid my friends would collect them at the beach and string them into long necklaces" (quote, editor)

remember the tv commercial in the 70's with the indian in a canoe surrounded by trash? it ended with a close-up of a tear running down his face, and even though i was just a kid it really touched me and sparked my awareness about just how much litter was around in public. the bottom line is that individuals who litter do not respect their environment and were not taught to do so. in my opinion, it has nothing whatsoever to do with economic status - yes you can always point to poorer areas being trashy but always find people in fancy gated communities who litter. i've also seen firsthand the front porches of poor people that are swept and yards cleaned. my grandmother told me at an early age that cleanliness was next to godliness and even though it sounded corny and i got tired of hearing it as i grew up it started making sense. my parents did not allow us to litter, period. it was the way they were raised and it made such an impression they passed it down. it is also the way i raise my own children and i have no doubt they will carry on the tradition. it makes no difference that i was raised quite poor and my children are financially secure, it's all about upbringing. society would do well to reintroduce the concept of citizenship - many do not even know what it really means and think it concerns a person's immigration status. ethics and civics have been stripped away from public education and placed in the hands of parents, unfortunately many decline to rise to the challenge.

deb martin

[jmancuso]

bandit signs crack me up...

yeah, i'm gonna refinance a $150,000 mortgage with someone who advertises on the blank side of a pizza box stabled to a stick with only their phone number (and no name) scribbled on it with a sharpie.

w00t!

[Double L]

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)

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.

Very simple solution, the city should hire private companies to handle our litter pickup. Since they will handle it they will save us money on maintenance and since they get money from more sources than just us (people like these homeowner associations) they make money, we make money, our city is cleaned. If we hire different companies for different neighborhoods it will all be manageable. Other than that we can make a standard schedule time for cleaning on EVERYBODY (including TxDot) as Great Hizzy mentioned earlier.

[kzseattle]

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

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

About 10 or 12 years ago, a friend of mine in Seattle often remarked how clean Houston was when compared to Seattle. Since Seattle itself is pretty clean, it was hard for me to imagine an even cleaner city. So imagine my shock when I moved here recently and saw all the trash. Perhaps my friend was kidding me or out of his mind. Or maybe the situation has worsened in the last few years.

I believe both the city and its residents share the blame. The city need to enforce strict anti-littering laws to change the habit of its people. Meanwhile, it could hire more workers to pick the trash. However, seeing how extensive the problem is, picking up the trash by hand may not be the most efficient method. So the city could mechanize the effort. In Seattle, I would often see a cleaning truck late in the night cleaning up the roads and crew using industrial strength vacuum cleaners to pick the trash and dead leaves. I haven

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[editor]

I'd forgotten about him until he was parodied in some 90's film. Wayne's World, I think.

[Guest danax]

When he stood by that highway and cried, it got to me too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If he were to go over to parts of 5th ward, Magnolia Park or North Main, he'd wail like a baby.

[Talbot]

Today I saw something that was a good start for trash. It was a service announcement for heavy trash and how you could get tickets for the unsightleyness. And it said Keep Houston trash free or something.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[Double L]

This effort could be funded with the money generated from fining the violators of anti-littering laws and perhaps a small surcharge.

That's not gonna be anywhere near enough money. Send the job to private companies and require they give us these services.

[editor]

That's not gonna be anywhere near enough money. Send the job to private companies and require they give us these services.

Who knows if it would be enough. Has anyone ever been ticketed for littering? I mean all those "Don't Mess With Texas" signs are pretty -- pretty ineffective.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I agree with Double L. It may be worth it to the COH to hire these firms to do the trash pickup/maintenaince. This way, accountability can be measured more affectively. Leaving it up to the various home owner associations has lead to an environment like what we have nowadays.

FTR, my brother-in-law was in Houston two years ago (here's from Florida) and was surprised by how "clean" it was. I assured him it wasn't as clean then as it used to be and definitely isn't as clean now as it was two years ago.

And from what I'm seeing, I think lots of vehicles carrying loads are the biggest culprits. This weekend, I saw plastic bags fly off of three different trucks coming back from Louisiana, and of course the bags ended up along side the roads, where trash accumulates and rests for days at a time because TxDot can't be bothered to sweep the freeways but for once a month or so.

Poor.

Are we too sensitive to the litter in Houston relative to the rest of our nation's cities? Maybe. But this isn't about other cities, it's about us. I don't think we should settle for anything just because it's okay in other cities.

[N Judah]

About 10 or 12 years ago, a friend of mine in Seattle often remarked how clean Houston was when compared to Seattle. Since Seattle itself is pretty clean, it was hard for me to imagine an even cleaner city. So imagine my shock when I moved here recently and saw all the trash. Perhaps my friend was kidding me or out of his mind. Or maybe the situation has worsened in the last few years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Houston hasn't gotten dirtier, it's just that Seattle has gotten cleaner. There aren't as many syringes lying around as there used to be, and general gentrification has 'cleaned' up the city in some ways as well (i.e. the heroin addicts have been forced to move).

[kzseattle]

That's not gonna be anywhere near enough money. Send the job to private companies and require they give us these services.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But how are we going to pay those private companies?

If the fine is $50 and there are 100 citations a day, then that

[Talbot]

In Seattle, I would often see a cleaning truck late in the night cleaning up the roads and crew using industrial strength vacuum cleaners to pick the trash and dead leaves. I haven

[Double L]

If the fine is $50 and there are 100 citations a day, then that

[kzseattle]

I don't believe that's enough money to handle a cleanup of the entire city of Houston, which is what we really should do. We need something that can be managed in a way to clean not only our most important areas but also what could be our future most important areas.

We need something that works from your homefront to mine.

We can't manage something this large on our own however we can acheive the same results and save a lot of money by paying private companies and requiring them to provide specific services for us. We would pay different companies for different neighborhoods so each of them can handle the massive job. I'd say in the end this would cost us in all $150,000 dollars a month, paid for by the loittering fines. This is the only way to handle a truly large cleanup job, we would turn private companies into one of the largest city cleanup sevices in the country. Afterwards Houstonians will know how clean a city they have and they might think differently about littering in the first place.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Like I said, the real goal of fining would be to discourage people from littering. Whatever money come out if it can be used to at least partially, if not fully, pay for the cost of cleanup and enforcement of anti-littering laws.

Division of work is a good idea to manage this massive task. However, dont we already have a plethora of home owner associations that are kind of private organizations?

In general, I think home owner associations are doing an ok job since most neighborhoods being managed by such associations are fairly clean, even in an area like Sharpstown. However, home owner associations only look after the inner residential streets and not the major roads passing through the area. So most of the mess that we see is on those major roads.

Plus, unlike home owner associations, we dont have business owner associations to clean up commercial properties. So we also need such business owner associations that collect dues from business owners and use them to enforce deed restrictions on commercial properties.

Since we have so many such associations, it might help to have an umbrella organization to oversee and effectively monitor the smaller associations. Perhaps, we could one such umbrella organization per super neighborhood. The home owner associations can take care of residential areas. The business owner associations can look after commercial areas. And the umbrella organization can take care of public properties (such as major roads) and ensure that the smaller associations fulfill their obligations.

[Double L]

What I'm saying is that the city can be more effective by hiring private companies to handle city cleaning services, while we simply let the homeowners associations and business associations do what they do.

We let private sector businesses handle litter pickup, garbage cleanup, pressure washing, etc. for the city. We give different businesses different parts of the city and let them handle there given neighborhoods. This way we will increase efficiency by having different organizations micro-manage different areas. A massive project that the city couldn't take on, for a much cheaper price. Then we simply require specific services for different neighborhoods. I don't believe there would be a need for any umbrella organization to manage this after our simple requirements are in place (require specific technology used such as pressure washing in DT and require a specific schedule). there shouldn't be a need for any umbrella organization from the city with the job to "manage" organizations. Simple requirements through contracts can be put in place to acheive the same goal.

We will save ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars and have a better system for future generations in place.

[dbigtex56]

Guess this may as well go here as anywhere.

From today's KHOU website:

Neighborhood activists call them "litter on a stick." For years now, they've ripped down and ripped up so-called bandit signs.

Now activists in the FM 1960 area have dreamed up a novel way to clean those signs off the streets and it's working.

Larry Lipton loves driving his sports car, but the guy in his little red Corvette has another obsession.

"It's trashy," he says about nearby FM 1960.

Maybe you've seen him on the busy stretch of road, swinging a garden tool and ripping down bandit signs.

After tearing down countless illegal signs in his neighborhood, the civic activist came up with an idea.

"We started reporting these builders and other offenders to the Better Business Bureaul," said Lipton.

City regulators have routinely torn up bandit signs and ticketed the people behind them, but nobody had ever before considered threatening them with black marks at the Better Business Bureau.

"It is within our purview. But I will tell you, we had a lot of meetings of staffers, where we sat down, did some real brain friction, and said, 'Are we really going down the right road?' And the answer was, 'Yeah, we are,'" said Dan Parsons with the Better Business Bureau.

It is an unorthodox strategy, but it's apparently working. Civic activists say two major homebuilders have agreed to stop posting bandit signs in the 1960 area.

And drivers can see the difference.

"Right now, we can walk through this area and see nothing but grass," said Lipton.

Now, in places where people used to see bandit signs they're seeing a sign of how things have changed.

To report bandit signs in the City of Houston, just call 311.

Link to KHOU article

[The Great Hizzy!]

The bandit signs problem is infinitely worse in Harris County than in COH. The 1960 area IS bad but not nearly as bad as the high-growth areas in west and northwest Harris County, such as along Fry and Barker-Cypress Roads. FM 529 is horrible, too. The signs eventually fall down (or fall apart) and become scattered litter.

While I don't have anything against suburban areas or suburbanites, I don't get why Harris County seems to be so lax about things like this. It's bad enough that it has a great indifference towards sidewalks and streetlights, it's another to not have any ordinances (or enforced ordinances) that guard the way the landscape looks.

Am I all wet? Any Harris County residents care to speak to this?

[brijonmang]

well i have found a good approach at removing this problem...some friends and i will pick up about a truck bed full of them at night and consolidate the mess into one lawn...not only does the origanal location of the signs look better...whoever pissed you off in the first place now gets to spend the morning throwing them away for real