[tag]I live in Atlanta – and am tired of living in a city that looks and feels like crap. I have never before lived in a place where there is so much litter.[/tag] In fact, the litter drives me practically insane. Stuff is thrown out of cars on exits, there is litter on my walks with my dogs, there is trash quite frankly EVERYWHERE. And I am tired of it. But I am not sure what to do. I pick up litter all the time on my walks.
I also think that trash leads to broken windows and then to crime. You know, the “broken window theory.” We are seeing more trash, more graffiti, and more crime. No if, ands, or buts. It is here and we all must do something. Certainly, our leaders are doing nothing about the trash. They have cut funds from the state level to the city level. 
This photo was taken directly across the street from our illustrious City Hall East – I mean, seriously? No one picks up trash anymore, no one cuts grass along our highways, no one thinks this smaller problem can lead to much much bigger problems. But it does and it is. I find that some of the highest levels of crime are happening in the trashiest parts of our city. My blogging friend, Ben, of [tag]Terminal Station[/tag], has created a pretty amazing post about the rise of crime in our city. Check it out.
Anyway, pick up trash when you can. Get your neighborhood organizations to start “trash days.” Let’s try to do the little things to help our City along. God knows, it needs it – or the whole city will end up looking like Memorial Drive.
“I live in Atlanta – and am tired of living in a city that looks and feels like crap. I have never before lived in a place where there is so much litter. In fact, the litter drives me practically insane.”
I could not have put this better. If I didn’t own a house I’d be currently trying to decide to which city I’d be moving soon. I’m just about ready to remove the “[eatl/ga]” from my signature.
Atlanta and the whole state have become a slum in my opinion. I’m no longer proud to say I’m from Georgia. I noticed all the litter last time I was in the city and it really made me sad. Sonny has cut out the funds for our roadside maintenance and it really shows. You can live in a half million dollar home, but if you never cut the grass…it’s gonna look like crap! I’m interested in organizing some type of group or protest…anyone else???
It’s depressing – I watched a jerk walk out of a gas station the other day – he had bought a new t-shirt, as he walked across the lot he tore the plastic bag open and dropped it on the ground, got to his buddy’s car, took his old T-shirt off, actually threw it on a trash can next to the car, then put the new one on and left.
One of the worst exit ramps full of litter is Glenwood at I20 – atrocious.
I just don’t understand how people can so nonchalantly throw stuff on the ground – I can only imagine how they keep their own homes…
Ashley, I’m a virtual friend of Ben T (I am on his facebook friends list because of AOC even though we’ve never actually met). Have you ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”? One of the things he talks about is graffiti removal leading to an overall (significant) reduction in more serious crime (ie. murder). Thought of that when I read your comment about “I also think that trash leads to broken windows and then to crime.”. I think that’s absolutely true.
I absolutely agree that metro Atlanta has to be among the trashiest places in the country. I’ve travelled to every state in the good old USofA and have not seen any worse. I’ve even been to some third world countries that weren’t as trashy. I’ve lived in the metro Atlanta area for over thirty years now and I’m so disgusted it makes me want to move. I certainly don’t understand why some of the kabillions of dollars being spent by the Obama administration couldn’t be directed towards paying people to clean up the roadsides.
Trashlanta………the city to busy (and sorry) to pick up it’s trash
I sympathize with you totally. Not only is this city seemingly full of the two-legged trash that thinks it’s ok to just toss junk on the ground and think nothing of it, it also makes bare minimum efforts to police littering and clean up huge trash piles on sidewalks and vacant lots. A huge pile of funiture and trash has been sitting on Moreland near the intersection of Wylie for over a week. There are several other large piles of trash and furniture scattered across the sidewalks, some have been sitting there for months. A lot of people here sh** where they eat and don’t seem to have any pride in keeping their neighborhood in decent shape.
Take a short trip off Peachtree, Piedmont, and Ponce and you can just see how much this city cares about certain areas.
This city isn’t too busy. It just doesn’t give a damn.
It looks like SC to me.
I couldn’t agree more and I am devasted by the situation! I drive to work and have to force myself not to look because I get so upset by what I see. I can’t believe more people are not outraged by this and sadly the condition only worsens daily. I too have been to many cities in the last couple of years (the period that the DOT claims budget cuts necessitated a cut back on mowing and cleaning) and no where have I seen the deplorable conditions that surround Atlanta. And many of the areas I have visited have been much harder hit by the economy than Atlanta. While it is easy to blame this on our citizens, the reality is that trash is and always will be a problem. The volume that we are now seeing is directly due to the DOTs and other responsible municipalities not taking the appropriate measures to keep our city clean. For some reason, which is totally beyond my comprehension, this simply is not a priority or a concern. The whole world has gone “Green Crazy” and yet Atlanta can’t keep the trash off of our streets and highways. I’d love to talk further with anyone that is interested to see if we can be a loud enough voice to make someone take notice and make some positive changes. My email is epetkovich@seligenterprises.com.