City: Enforce Our Codes; Give Us Order

Behind the parapet of the Caveman Bridge on Riverside Inn property, 9-13-14

We have long had a problem with law enforcement in our city and county, long before the federal government stopped subsidizing our county with timber cutting and grants.   Petty theft was rampant long before we had to start releasing inmates from our jail. 

One reason is the disorder that the city has tolerated for decades.  Disorderly criminals know that they can do what they wish on a neglected property, because no one cares about it.  They build their disorderly habitat by littering, and target disorderly places for camping, vandalism, and theft.

We recently had a public safety performance audit.  The auditor made a point that the city must enforce its property maintenance codes; that enforcement by complaint is not enforcement, does not work, and is unfair to citizens who hire police to enforce laws; and police and firemen should notice and report violations as they go about their work.

City police seem to think that they need special permission from the Council to enforce laws that are already on our books.  Our City Charter mandates that the City Manager enforce all city codes.  Police have all the authority that they need from the Council and citizens; they don’t have the authority to ignore our codes and our Charter. 

Our property maintenance codes are among our nuisance codes and development codes.  The nuisance code provides for abatement when the City Manager determines that a nuisance exists.  It doesn’t have to be considered a safety hazard any more, as it was recently changed by the Council.  The admin fee for abatement was also raised to 20%.   

This should be sufficient signal from the Council that they want the codes fully enforced.  But the city apparently still cites and abates only when a nuisance is determined to be a safety hazard, and still doesn’t bother to warn property owners or residents before officers consider it worth abating, even telling the offenders that there is no violation when violation is obvious and has been complained about.  They don’t appear to cite and abate any businesses or vacant lots, but only residential properties and smaller lots near residences.

The city should warn people when they are in violation of our code while it is easy to clean up, and stop hazards from developing.  They should start with litter, a word not mentioned in the code, but which is obviously included in it.  If the city would stop tolerating trash on the ground and warn us to clean it up, it would be cleaned up within a week, or a month for those who insist in being cited.

Special January protest issue, at GPlittercleaner.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Pass this leaflet to the City Grants Pass, or call.  Write a letter to really impress them.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener             541-955-9040               rycke@gardener.com

Grants Pass Property Nuisance Codes:

5.12.050 Weed, Grass, Snow and Ice Removal.

1. No owner or person in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on a public sidewalk or right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk may permit:

A. Snow to remain on the sidewalk for a period longer than the first two hours of daylight after the snow has fallen.

B. Ice to cover or remain on the sidewalk, after the first two hours of daylight after the ice has formed. Such person shall remove ice accumulating on the sidewalk or cover the ice with sand, ashes, or other suitable material to assure safe travel. (Ord. 2901 §9, 1960)

C. Weeds or grass from growing or remaining on the sidewalk for a period longer than two weeks or consisting of a length greater than 6 inches.

2. Property owners and persons in charge of property, improved or unimproved, abutting on right of way adjacent to a public sidewalk shall be responsible for the maintenance of said right of way, including but not limited to: keeping it free from weeds; watering and caring for any plants and trees planted herein; maintaining any groundcover placed by the City; maintaining any groundcover as required by  other sections of the Municipal Code or the Grants Pass Development Code. (Ord. 5380 § 18, 2006)

5.12.060 Weeds and Noxious Growth.

No owner or person in charge of property may permit weeds or other noxious vegetation to grow upon his property. It is the duty of an owner or person in charge of property to cut down or to destroy weeds or other noxious vegetation from becoming unsightly, or from becoming a fire hazard, or from maturing or going to seed. (Ord. 2901 §10, 1960)

5.12.070 Scattering Rubbish.

No person may throw, dump, or deposit upon public or private property, and no person may keep on private property, any injurious or offensive substance or any kind of rubbish, (including but not limited to garbage, trash, waste, refuse, and junk), appliances, motor vehicles or parts thereof, building materials, machinery, or any other substance which would mar the appearance, create a stench, or detract from the cleanliness or safety of such property, or would be likely to injure any animal, vehicle, or person traveling upon any public way. (Ord. 2901 §11, 1960; Ord. 4397 §1, 1981) (Ord. 5379 § 18, 2006) 

A Styrofoam Bombing on the Riverwalk

8/19/14

Saturday, I started seeing little pieces of pinkish Styrofoam outside the Greenwood dog park as soon as I got out of my truck.  This was obviously purposeful marking of territory.  Styrofoam peanuts are generally found only by main roads, randomly, where they blow out of the top of trash trucks because some people don’t bag their trash before putting it in the can. 

I threw balls for my dog, Petey, and then we headed down to the river at the Greenwood Overlook to cool off and relax, picking up little pieces of Styrofoam along the way.  Whole pieces started appearing as we got to the Overlook and I could see that they continued down the trail, but we went down to the river to check it out first.  The dead deer in the water by the bank that I had reported a few days before was gone.  I did find most of a half-rack of Coors Light cans near the climb out, and a towel up the tree-root ladder, where I investigated because of a cigarette package at the base.  I took them back to my truck, not far, before heading further down the trail.

I would normally visit only this spot along the river on a Saturday morning, since I had a group cleanup under the Caveman Bridge at 10:00 and some refreshments and ice to buy first.  But now, I had to check out the extent of the Styrofoam along the trail and police the lower fishing block and camping spot.   I don’t know or care if anyone sleeps there and leaves nothing; I clean up anything that anyone leaves there, including fire pits.

The pieces of Styrofoam became more numerous as I walked down the trail.  I knew I didn’t have time to pick them up along the way, and just picked up some pieces along the way.  I ran into a lady who mentioned that they had been there for about two days, apparently spread right after my last visit.  The timing may not be coincidental.  I mention the Bridge cleanup on my latest leaflet, and someone using the river walk would be familiar with my cleaning patterns.  I’ve only been getting there about twice a week lately.

When I got to the lower fishing spot at the end of Spruce Street, I found nearly another half-rack of cans, this time mixed Coors Light and Pabst.  It seems that the Coors drinker switched to Pabst.  I hear it’s on sale.

The kind of litter, pink Styrofoam, makes me think that the perp is female.  And I can’t help but connect the Styrofoam to the Coors/Pabst drinker; these are light beers with little hop, and I’ve been picking Coors Light cans up by the half-rack for weeks.  But this is sheer speculation in work that lends itself to forensic thinking.

But what is readily apparent is that this littering was neither accidental nor unthinking.  It was purposeful and aimed right at my litter cleaning efforts, probably in retaliation for cleaning up under the Caveman Bridge.  It appears that this person walked along the River Trail toward the Dog Park, tossing Styrofoam, and started to run out too soon to make it to the Dog Park, so she started crumbling the last pieces to make them go farther.

That Saturday, I had to stop cleaning at that point and get to the Bridge.  Sunday was my day of rest.  Monday, I cleaned along the path to the end of the Wastewater Treatment plant fence before leaving for my 10:30 Networking Toastmasters meeting.  I could see that the Styrofoam continued down the trail, and notified my liason with the City that Parks needed to get the rest.

Along the way, picking up Styrofoam near the blackberries at the edge of the river bank, I found another river access that was not obvious from the trail, about half-way between the two known spots behind the Wastewater Treatment Plant, seemingly recently opened with weed whackers, with steps cut in the bank for easier access.  It has two conglomerate shelves that are currently out of the water, and a deep hole in front of the lower one.  Perhaps fishermen cut the steps; it looks to be a great spot, and unreachable otherwise except by boat.  It was also being used by drinkers, with cans and toilet paper in evidence. 

The Styrofoam Bomber thereby showed me an access I didn’t know about and she did.  They often do this with their litter; I follow it and find amazing things.  When one marks territory with litter, it can lead curious people to one’s hideouts.  That top conglomerate shelf is nice and dry and soaks up the heat of the sun during the day for a warm sleeping surface at night.

Tuesday, I postponed Westholm cleaning to see how far the Styrofoam went, walking Petey further down the trail after our ball-throwing and checking the river spots, which were pretty clean.  There was a fisherman and his buddy watching him.  They were telling me how they pick up litter, as I picked up litter around them.  I get this a lot.  Some I know are lying for my benefit.

Of course I found a few pieces where I had already cleaned; it will take weeks to get all the pieces.  As I walked down the trail I hadn’t cleaned yet, I started finding broken pieces again, within a few feet of the trail, while there were whole pieces further out.  This made me think that Parks had sent a lawn mower along the trail to pick up the litter, which may have picked up some, but broke up others, making just as much or more work picking up the pieces.  I reported it to my liason, our Assistant City Manager, David Reeves, leaving a message.

A few minutes later, I called to report my displeasure with having to pick my way through knee-high blackberries and shrubs that had been cut to that height months previously to retrieve a chip bag lying on the weeds, and got to talk to him.  When he made a joke about punji sticks, I told him about the time on Work Crew, out at the Food Bank Farm, when I fell and nearly got killed by a bamboo stalk cut off about 8” high; it cut my forehead, a few inches above my eye.

A while later, I called him and let him know that I’d found Ground Zero of the Styrofoam Bombing, where she had apparently opened the bag and lost a bunch right off the bat.  There was none apparent past that.  At this point, my bucket was pretty full and it would take another half-hour to pick them up one at a time, so I asked him to ask Parks to get the rest, about 100 feet or so east of the foot bridge on the river side of the path, and headed back to my truck. 

 

This makes a third obviously retaliatory incident connected apparently to cleaning under the Caveman Bridge.  The first was dumping a 3-gallon bucket worth of moldy dog manure on the Caveman Bridge, soon after I started cleaning under it a couple weeks in a row.  The second, soon after that, was dumping a baggy full of push pins and other sharp objects in front of my house.  I didn’t get back there for a month or so, but then started the weekly cleanup under the Bridge.  And now one has attacked my home ground, the River Walk.

The litterers and day sleepers in Riverside Park are not vagrants, for the most part; they are residents, unemployed and disorderly, only some of them homeless.  They like to hang out with their friends in that area, and they like their surroundings disorderly.  They really resent it being cleaned up.  They know that disorderly surroundings repel the orderly and respectable and they like it that way.

Under the Caveman Bridge: Carl brought a group!

Caveman Bridge, downstream view, North Bank

8/2/14

I had a good radio show with Carl Wilson on KAJO on Wednesday, for about 15 minutes at the end of Eyewitness Reports.  On Friday, he called and said that he’d be working with me on Saturday under the Bridge, and had been asking some friends to join him.  I was thrilled and fairly certain that he, at least, would show up.

As I got in the truck on Saturday, packed for the cleanup, I heard him talking on KAJO about our project, and putting out a last-minute call to the public.  He told people that a litter grabber is recommended, as well as gloves and a bucket, and that he was bringing a box of gloves as well, which made me very happy. 

I got there in time to get my signs set by the entrance and get mostly set up with refreshments and sign-up list before he came, and the group started gathering.  I had them sign up and equipped those without buckets with yellow litter bags with my stickers and “Trash only” written on them, explaining that the city allows me to leave these bags next to their trash cans for disposal, but I have to write “trash only” to stop collectors from emptying them into the trash cans in search of returnables. 

Truly, the Bottle Bill is out of date; it is hardly worth the hassle of turning them in.  I don’t.  I give them to a man who is starting to think it isn’t worth the hassle of putting them in the machine.  I think that they cause more litter than they get cleaned up, making some think that it’s okay to throw them because some bum will pick them up.  I learned on work crew that even many bums don’t think they are worth returning; they slept next to piles of them.

We started on the top of the Bridge, which didn’t take long with the group doing both sides at once, and thoroughly with us changing sides and going back.  From there, we pretty much split up and covered the area, some going after the big trash down by the river, where people eat and hang out on the relatively private rocks; some went out on the disk golf course; some went after the small litter around the tree and the butt pit below.  I decided that the steps needed to be blown off and got my battery blower; I ended up getting a broom and dustpan by the time I got to the bottom; the dirt was thick in the corners and it piled up too much for a blower.

I didn’t get any pictures; my camera battery was dead.  Otherwise I could have gotten a shot of the broken plastic yard chair and twin-sized inch-thick plastic foam pad that Steve Roe brought up from the river.  I later found a fully-equipped fishing pole where I presume he found the furniture, and gave it away within 50 feet.

We stayed pretty scattered out, but four of us gathered below the sidewalk under the Bridge and worked on the butts and broken glass on that slope and especially at the bottom against the curved bridge support.  I used the screen-bottom dustpan that my housemate Donnie made for me to use on that spot, as the soil there is loose fine silt.

We worked there until noon, when Carl said he had another appointment.  Some had already gone home by then, and I thought we were the last still there.  Rebecca and Madison Anderson thereby each won a prize for being the last to leave, after helping me gather tools: their choice of the gardening hats in my bag.  They chose matching hats with large brims all the way around.

I stayed to work down by the river a little while and see what had been left.  At one point, I found glass broken on the side of a concrete pipe, and needed a broom and dustpan again.  As I was going to my truck to get them, I met one of our helpers, Carolyn Henderson, coming in with her tools, saying it was time for her to leave.  She’d gone home to get a rake at one point, and got back to work.  So she won a choice of gardening hats as well.

Carl and I will be working at the Fairgrounds this Saturday the 9th, cleaning the frontage from one end to the other.  I expect he will bring a group there

also, including some that showed up for the Bridge.  The Fairgrounds had the weeds cut along the west parking lot fence.  Hurray!  We'll be working under the Bridge again on the 16th.  Register at Volunteercleanup.org to join the cleanup.

Nine people showed up and participated.  Beside the above-mentioned, Trish Bull, Jiggy Bim, Jennifer Black, Marie Solomon and Kristi Roe worked to help make this “a city that looks safe and is safe.”

Under the Caveman Bridge, Week 3: Back to the 50's

7/26/14

I was going to set up as usual just inside Riverside Park, but the West entrance was blocked off.  A couple of gentlemen came up in a cart and I asked them if all the entrances were blocked.  Indeed they were; a classic car show had taken over the park for the day.  But they said that I could clean litter from under the Bridge.

They had opened the entrance to the skate park on the other side of 6th Street/Williams Highway, and the Boy Scouts were collecting $3 for parking in it, apparently anywhere west of the Caveman Bridge.  The grass there is not watered, so parking couldn't damage it.

Indeed, apart from some mowing and hedging, it is totally unmaintained, and I discovered another patch of star thistle alongside the beginning of the bike/pedestrian path under the Bridge.  I got to thinking that the city needs to aggressively maintain the disc golf course, not use it for occasion parking.  Disc golfers are a messy lot even in a well-maintained area.  Ugly landscaping gives them more excuse for messiness, and maintenance workers less reason to do a good job.  No one likes to maintain ugly.

The Boy Scouts waived away my money, since I would be working.  I offered them some of my lemon water and grapes, and gave them leaflets.  Since I was parking in that end of the park, I had to clean it first, at least along the street and path.  

I quickly found a mess of auto glass where someone had apparently smashed a window, and went back for the broom and dustpan and cleaned it up.  Then I got to pulling trash out of the ivy and bushes to the south of my parking space, and kept going to the corner of Park Street.  

There were 3 bottles smashed along the sidewalk and in the parking lot around the spa place, requiring sweeping.  The owner ignored it as he drove out over it with a hot tub, just as he ignores the other litter and the weeds that infest his pavements.  But I was able to give a leaflet or two to people who saw me working on the glass.

I did all that even before walking the bridge, I think.  After cleaning the top, where I found a bit less trash behind the parapet, mostly old and grown over, I proceeded to the stairs, the tree, and then down to the eating area by the river to get the big trash.  

That's where I ran into Chelsea Bledsoe's brother, who offered to help.  I regret that I forgot his first name, forgetting to fix it in my memory by saying it three times or writing it down.  But the young Mr. Bledsoe helped me for about an hour and was good company. 

It being Back to the 50’s, I decided to skip the 7^th Street Bridge after my mid-afternoon break, but after seeing how dead the park was getting, I went there after all, cleaned the litter from the top, and got the last 2 sections of detritus on the East side.

Under the Caveman Bridge, Week 2

I had a little help in the third hour of cleaning under the 6th Street Caveman Bridge this week.  You can join the cleanup here, or just come down on Saturdays at 10am. 

I decided to be a better host and brought cucumber water and grapes.  Around noon, since no one had shown up, I offered some to a group that I kept passing between the bridge and my truck, saying no one had shown up, and a nice girl, Chelsea Bledsoe, offered to help.  She did for the next hour, which was about as long as I wanted to work on it that day. 

I let her use the litter grabber while I used the broom and screen-bottom dustpan that I got Donnie to make for this project, for sweeping butts off of loose soil.  Then we switched for a while, and switched back.

The first hour, I first cleaned the top, as usual.  It was no different than usual, except behind the parapet at the NW end near the Riverside Inn.  There was only one piece of trash there this week, a cup hidden deep in the blackberries.  Cleaning the bucket-full out of the shielding shrubbery last week might have made a difference.

When I got to the stairs and the tree at the bottom, I was glad to see that the area wasn't nearly as trashy as it was the week before, or even a few days before; I did a bit of work mid-week.  My main fear in this project has been that it would get so trashed between visits that we wouldn't be able to make progress.  But it takes money to make trash, and most people are not deliberate about their littering; it is subconscious.

As I was cleaning up around the tree at the bottom of the steps, a man who was sitting on the steps was greeted by his arriving friends.  "What's up, Mad Dog?" one said.  He replied, "My space is being intruded on.  Let's go."  And he and his friends headed somewhere downriver.

I don't like to intrude, but sitting on narrow steps is inherently rude and is intimidating to some folks, especially tourists.  It is one of the reasons that locals avoid the area of the bridge.  Unless one is walking to the park from the other side of the river, there is little reason to go there.  But I suspect that many walkers cross traffic rather than go down those stairs.

Before I even finished under the tree, I decided to go down toward the river and pick up the food trash that I know gets spread down among the rocks near the drain outlet, a cool place with a nice level concrete surface.  From there, I headed downstream a ways, and realized a lot of the trash there was falling from a path above.  I went back and took that path, and found more falling from level ground at the top.  That was where I found the biggest trash, discarded clothing. 

That filled my bucket, and I headed back to the truck, when I found help for the next hour with Chelsea.  I had planned to work on the 7th Street Bridge later, but I went home for lunch, had a leftover sandwich, and tasted bad meat in the last bite.  I made some slippery elm tea to stop any stomach trouble, but I was weak and gassy for about an hour and stayed home for the rest of the day.  Just as well; it was my daughter's birthday.

I probably won't serve cucumber water again; it seems to be diuretic, and it's a long way to the bathroom, with a lot of trash to clean up on the way there and back.  When one is wearing a Litter Cleaner tunic, it doesn't do to pass trash.  I'll serve lemon water next week.

Cleaning under the Caveman Bridge

It's amazing how small litter disappears in a photograph.  

July 12, 2014

Volunteers joined me for cleaning under the Caveman Bridge on Saturday!  They were missionaries from one of the local churches that I had been talking to over 5 or 6 weeks.  The church, that is, not these particular missionaries; they came in pairs but one of them changed every time they showed up to talk Bible, until I had met 4 sisters in three visits.  We arranged several weeks ago to start the initial cleanup under the Bridge on the 12th.  I was hoping that they would all show up for the cleanup, but two entirely new ones showed up, a bit younger than the other four. 

I was given a link to VolunteerCleanup.org during the previous weekend, so I signed up on that and tried for more helpers, but probably no one in the Grants Pass area is signed up with them yet.  Plus, the notice was rather short. 

I had specified to bring a litter grabber, gloves, and a bucket, but they showed up with only plastic gloves.  I was able to provide one with a bucket, and the other with a yellow ODOT-style litter bag, and we set out to do the top of the bridge first, since my signs were set out on the roadway at the West entrance to the park, and I couldn’t have them up there with a littered bridge.

I took them along the east side first.  I showed them how my gardening scissors are a small litter grabber that gets butts out of cracks and saves 6” of stoop.  (The last 6 inches of stoop is the hardest.)  We cleaned to the very littered NE end and crossed to the NW end, where I showed them the place behind the curved parapet by the Riverside Inn where someone had dumped maple trimmings, making a less thorny but very ugly place among the blackberries to hide behind the wall, do business and pleasure and leave big food litter.  

We stopped between the first two arches long enough for me to tell them about the 3-gallon pile of moldy dog doo someone had dumped there Sunday, two weeks before.

I proceeded to tell them that the litter under the bridge is scaring off tourists, and about a letter from a Las Vegas couple that Councilor DeYoung had told us about at the City Council workshop: They said that they walked from the Riverside Inn into Riverside Park and they will never come back to Grants Pass. 

The easiest route for one to take from the Riverside Inn to Riverside Park is the west side of the bridge to the stairs at the SW end, down to the walkway under the bridge.  The stairs, the area next to them, the area under the tree at the bottom, and below the walkway under the bridge, is the most littered place I have seen in Grants Pass, bar none, mostly butts.  

It's amazing how such small trash disappears in non-closeup photos.

The letter mentioned something about transients hanging out, but the litter announces that disorderly bums own this part of the park. It’s been that way for at least a decade, since I came back to Grants Pass in 1999 after living here in the mid-80’s, when it was a very neat town.

Most Grants Pass and Josephine County residents can be forgiven for not noticing.  If one drives to the park, one has already passed the bridge at the west entrance and proceeds to park closest to one’s destination in the park.  There is nothing to draw one to that end of the park except the disk golf course. 

Park workers try to keep up with litter, but there are not enough of them and none of them are dedicated to litter duty; it is only one of their many chores.  They get most of the big stuff near the sidewalks, but a sea of butts and glass accumulated over time is intimidating to even a dedicated cleaner.  I didn’t want to tackle it without help; it’s lonely down there.

The sisters worked their way down the stairs while I got the slope beside them.  They had to work their way past a man sitting on them.  (He drives in and hangs out with his friends in the park.)  We cleaned up the area under the tree pretty well and started on the butt slope below the walkway.  That is the most intimidating part of the place, and they soon started to lag.  The stooping was constant; they really needed grabbers. 

When I announced around noon that it was time to go empty my 5-gallon litter bucket, they said they had another appointment.  I thanked them, said that I will continue this next week, and that I hope that they could get some more people to show up, even if they can’t.

It should be interesting to see how much accumulates under the tree by next week.  One cannot expect a single cleaning to do any good; it takes several weeks of thorough cleaning in a row to have any impact on behavior.  Some people hate to see their litter disappear and will avoid an area where it keeps happening, but it seems like they first litter overtime to try to mess it up again.  But there is too much litter still within sight to expect to have any impact yet.

After they left, I took a look further down toward the river.  Each area is distinct.  Between the walkway and the first wall under the bridge is the butt pit.  Between that wall and the arches was a lot of broken glass among scattered sticks and rocks on dirt.  

The level area beyond the arches is the disk golf course, relatively clean, the grass kept short by geese.  On the rocky slope to the river is the bigger food trash and discarded clothing, in full view of the jet boats and the Riverside Inn. 

I got one 5-gallon bucket full of that, not all of it by any means, and went to work on the glass area a bit, raking up the sticks to make it easier to sweep the glass and rocks.  I was working there only until 2:00, since I am working on the detritus cleanup on the 7^th Street Bridge on Saturday afternoons.  By the time I cover the whole bridge, it will need another cleaning; the bike lane portion already does.

I had to use the bathroom at one point, and worked my way there and back, handing out leaflets and talking along the way for about a half-hour.  There was a remarkable amount of litter; they need people working on it over the weekends. 

A lot of it was bread that the ducks and geese apparently don’t eat.  Donnie and I have been noticing that birds don’t eat people food like they used to anywhere anymore; natural selection must be killing out the ones who eat our junk.  There are few ducks by the river anymore, and geese prefer grass.

A litter grabber is a very useful tool that grabs a lot more than litter.  It can get stuff out of tight places.  It can grab an object off a high shelf.  It’s just the thing for cleaning up fallen fruit and nuts from trees.  It should be good for picking fruit.  And it saves a lot of stooping when cleaning up litter.

So if one is going to clean litter for even a few hours, from a place where it is highly concentrated, it pays to buy one.  Even the youthful will appreciate it after cleaning litter without one.  I learned this in my first hours on Community Corrections Work Crew; it didn’t take me long to decide to use one.  While my hands can usually grab better, my body prefers less stooping.  And some things one would rather not touch even with gloves.

Blowback from litter cleaning?

This looks a lot smaller in the photo.  It filled a three-gallon bucket.  It made a very big stink.

July 10, 2014

It’s hard to believe, but some litterers can be possessive about the litter they leave.  They are not discarding it; they are using it to claim a piece of land for their own use, and they get very upset when someone cleans up their stuff. 

Baker Park’s cat lady uses the space behind the bathrooms to feed cats.  She tried to house them there, too, but cardboard boxes and plastic bins were a bit much.  She actually caught me cleaning up her cat food bowls, and we had quite the argument, with her saying she had permission from a city official, and I telling her that that very  official had told me he was no longer going to tolerate it, and does she think that only cats eat that food?  Someone else had told me that a vagrant lady steals it for her dogs.

My housemate, Donnie, was telling me about a person at McDonald’s who keeps eating about 2/3 of each French fry, and then leaves the rest out on the ground outside to feed the birds, where he sweeps them up.  He actually saw her (another old lady) dumping them while he was doing lot cleanup and went right away and swept them up in front of her, which started an argument.  She said she was feeding birds; he told her that the birds don’t eat McDonalds’ fries, and they are not allowed to leave food lying on the ground. 

Likewise, when one cleans campsites, territorial markers and fire pits from the riverside, and calls cops on day sleepers in the brush, one might get a bit of blowback, but it’s not direct, because these people cannot claim charity for animals, only for themselves, and it’s not charity if you claim it; it’s theft.

Sunday, June 29^th, I was heading out to work in Schroeder Park and to clean the Intersection of the Redwoods when I saw what appeared to be a large pile of horse manure on the Caveman Bridge, centered between the first and second arches, against the parapet.  I decided to clean it up on my way back.  I ended up not doing the Intersection, because the bridge needed doing more and I had work to do afterwards.

I parked my truck, got out my signs and such, and took the necessary tools out on the bridge, cleaning up litter on the way.  When I got to the pile, it turned out to be big dog feces, moldy and mixed with dry grass.   Someone must have been filling a dog food bag for a while and dumped it right on the bridge where the tourists cross from the Riverside Inn to Riverside Park.  Stunk to high heaven.

I started to sweep it up into my standing dustpan and dump it into a bag-lined bucket, remembered I should get a picture, and dumped it back out, not spread out quite as far as it had been.  Got pictures from several angles, and started sweeping it up again. 

Our Mayor came along on his bike and asked how I thought horse manure got onto the bridge?  He must have been upwind; I told him it was a big dog, not horse.  Reaching for my most charitable explanation, I said it must have fallen out of someone’s pickup in a dog food bag; they came back, took the bag and left the pile.

But thinking on it since, I can’t see how that could happen.  Things fly out of pickups on curves, not straight bridges.  There is no way that pile could have accidentally landed there.

Yesterday, two strange events occurred, at the beginning and end of my day.  Down at the Greenwood Dog Park, someone had left wet dog food scattered in the turnaround, and big pile of soft dog doo on the sidewalk, along with other litter.  I had to scrape the dried-on food from the pavement with my hula hoe before sweeping it up, and wash the sidewalk with water and a broom after scraping up the dog doo.

A more worrisome kind of littering happened while I was attending the Commissioners Weekly Business Session, the evening meeting on the second Wednesday of the month.  Someone dropped a baggy full of push-pin tacks and other small, sharp objects (glass; hooks; curtain hangers; metal scrap) in front of my house, where traffic scattered it further, including me pulling forward and backing into my driveway.  I spent the next half-hour cleaning up the traffic hazard.  My tires have survived thus far, but the pins could take time to work in.  Fortunately, their shape, which makes them lay sideways, probably kept them from penetrating anything.

I have been displaying my two Litter Cleaner signs in front of my house for two days, since getting the Indiegogo campaign sign made.  Perhaps not a great idea, but they know where I live now, so there in no point in not displaying them.  It’s a busy street and good advertising.

Protesting disorderly drug bans that create black markets means that one offends the more orderly people in society, which is relatively safe.  Protesting the non-enforcement of nuisance codes and taking direct action against disorder means that one offends the more disorderly people out there.  They don’t like people messing with their stuff and cleaning up the marks they make on their world.

#Litter is #tagging, marking the territory of the disorderly:  Contribute to cleaning it at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/public-litter-cleaning/x/7551098#home/share.

Starting the 7th Street Bridge

Sunday, March 16, 2014

I’d had a hankering to clean the 7^th Street Bridge for some time.  It’s a simple bridge, without the arches and columns that hide and shelter litter and litterers on the Caveman Bridge, so most of the litter is too small to see from a moving car.  But I had to do Greenwood Dog Park and check out Baker Park first, so I got there later than I wanted.

I parked at the old drive-in eatery on Park and 7^th, and started, as usual, by cleaning up the parking lot and the grass near 7^th.  There was a lot in the grass, and it continued to be a lot as I worked my way toward the bridge on that side of the road.  I kept filling my bucket and having to walk back to the truck, occasionally working down the hill to get pieces of trash. 

By the time I got to the bridge, it was getting late, and I only managed to work half-way down one side.

Cleaning the Caveman Bridge, Day 2

January 27th, 2014

I got a wild hair sooner than I expected.  Instead of continuing people litter pickup on Monday, I decided to really clean the bridge, starting with the dirtiest part, under the locust trees at the Southwest end.  The tree litter, dirt, and gravel attract litter like magnets; people naturally drop their ugly into ugliness.  I can’t clean up all such ugliness, but I can clean a bridge, and I can’t beat the location, apart from the way the arches and columns hide me.  I suppose the 7^th Street Bridge is next; it’s a lot simpler, cleaner, and wide open.

I realized, last night, that I have moved from protesting for a hobby to demonstrating for donations.  There is a difference, though the words were used interchangeably when I was a child.  I used to just complain about poor maintenance; I now demonstrate what needs to be done, using the advertising tunic to draw attention to it.

I parked in front of the disc golf course and got out my wheelbarrow and some tools: debris bucket; flat shovel; rake; hula hoe; broom; standing dustpan; and my litter grabber, hanging the litter bucket on the handle.  I also had to fold a bunch of leaflets to hand to passersby.  Advertising and work go hand in hand, and people appreciate my writing.  I hand out two-leaflet packets these days: a regular News You Can Use, Chickweed the subject this week, with an ad from Securing Our Safety  for their "Run For the Law" in March on the back; and Support Litter Cleanup in Grants Pass, so people can learn what I’m doing and why, with Grants Pass Property Nuisance Codes on the back.

I started cleaning from the SW stairs, first scraping the humus loose with the hula hoe, AKA scuffle hoe from its action, or stirrup hoe from its shape.  It’s a great tool for scraping ice from sidewalks as well.  I swept the loosened dirt into the dustpan from the first section and put it in the bucket, and repeated the work in the second section, up to where the arches start and the sidewalk goes around them. 

I stopped to take a photo of the chickweed growing in the accumulated humus in the corner, regretting that my camera phone was low on power and I had to use my talking phone, which doesn’t have a handy chip for transfer to my computer or internet capability.  But I later sent photos to my daughter, who used her i-phone to send them to my email.

I used the flat shovel to scoop out that corner.  That was the last time I used the shovel, and never used the rake.  I put them back in the truck when the bucket was full enough to dump.  The broom and dustpan were sufficient for cleaning up everything I loosened with the other tools, which might not be the case when the weather is wet.  Therefore, I won’t be cleaning the bridge when it is wet, so this might be a long-term project, looking at the weather this week.

At that point, I started using the hula hoe on the moss and humus above the pavement, where it had built up thick on the 2 lower portions of the parapet.  With the humus and dust blown into the moss at that level, it was not only thick, but dirty and ugly.  The hoe couldn’t get the dirt out of the corners, so I used my world’s greatest gardening scissors to detail it.

The cheapest broom at Walmart, a gray model with relatively few but stiff bristles, is amazingly effective on pavement, probably because the more widely space bristles get down into the pavement texture.  Between that and the standing dustpan, it was easy to scoop the dirt and moss into the big bucket, and sweep the dust along the bridge.

I had forgotten my blower, and at one point went home to get it and take a break.  On the way, I got that broken bottle I'd seen the day before, using that broom and dustpan. It's really good for broken glass.

By the time the sun was setting, I had managed to clean along the parapet to the center of the bridge along the west side.  Starting there, I got out my battery powered blower and started blowing the gravel from the edge of the sidewalk toward the parapet to sweep it up, as well as blowing the dust back toward the end, sweeping it up occasionally as it got too thick.  Between a new battery and an old one, I managed to almost blow off the area I had cleaned.  The day’s work took about 5 hours.

What did I carry the litter grabber and litter bucket for?  Picking up the fresh litter between my truck and the bridge, stopping my wheelbarrow to get it.  I like to keep a place clean once I clean it.

Cleaning the Caveman Bridge

January 26th, 2014

Sunday is my morning for weeding classes at Schroeder Dog Park, at 9:00 AM this time of year.  There are no weeds blooming in the actual dog park, but there were some Creeping Charlie blooming in the 2” wide crack between the curb and pavement in the parking circle.  I didn’t realize how wide that opening was until I took a scoop shovel and attempted to clean up the accumulated humus and plants. 

But before I pulled out the shovel, I picked up litter in both pens.  There was very little trash beyond a very few butts, but there were a good half-dozen piles of dog waste and some holes dug.  It was nice that I had some dog waste bags from Greenwood Dog Park.  It helped that the piles were frozen as well.  I pulled out the wheelbarrow and flat shovel, scooped up some gravel from the front of the pen, and filled the holes.

On the way home, I stopped for a little while at the Redwood Avenue/Hwy intersection and picked up small amount of litter that had gathered in the inner triangle since the previous Sunday.  I also worked the other side of Redwood leading up to the light.  I had thought about continuing down the Avenue, but the amount and size of the trash I have seen along there scares me a bit.  I have to talk to the City about making a dumpster available for large bags of trash, so I can do that area.  One piece of car I picked up next to the intersection was 2 ½ feet long and 8 inches wide, which barely fit in the Courier parking lot trash can later on.

Besides, I had a hankering to clean up the Caveman Bridge and to keep working around the bridges and the South Y until I figure it’s clean enough.  So I parked in Hellgate’s parking lot and started down that side of the street.  I filled a bag between the bridge and its closest intersection, working both sides of the road.

The bridge looked like it has not been cleaned in years (could be one year), with composted debris built up in corners and growing chickweed, and a line of tree litter and gravel along the railing, with its load of small litter, mostly butts, of course.  The tree litter gets wide and deep as one gets to the south end, under the locust trees.  At least I got the people litter.  One never gets it all, and people are constantly adding to it.  But at least it only adds up; it doesn’t multiply like weeds do. 

I may get a wild hair one of these days, get out my wheelbarrow and a few other tools, and clean up the rest of the debris.  Maybe after I’m pretty sure we won’t be spreading more gravel on icy streets.

I next parked in the locked driveway at the disc golf course, and spent the rest of the day picking up between the bridge and the Park Street intersection on both sides of the road, taking bags of litter down to the trash can on the stairs that go under the bridge into Riverside Park.  Under the bridge is the most littered place in the area, far worse than Tussing Park, as vagrants constantly mark their territory. 

My rule is to pick up litter in the area of a trash can any time I use it, but not too long at a time when the area is out of sight and extremely littered.  I spend about 5 minutes at a time in such a place.  But it is the only handy trash can near the bridge, and I will be visiting it fairly often.  I like to keep an area that I have worked in clean, once I clean it.  I at least got the area in the immediate area of the trash can clean, and the stairs from both sides of the road, with a some pickup between.

Near the end of the day, I parked near the West Park intersection, where someone had broken a beer bottle that needed sweeping, and the empty lot at the corner needed picking up.  From there, it was a bit far to the trash can under the bridge, so I took the rest of my trash to the Courier parking lot and the 6^th and G public lot, picking up most of both lots, though admittedly not covering every part.  But I will continue from West Park today, and finish those parking lots at the end of the day.

On my way back, I saw a broken bottle in the closed drive-in between 6th and 7th, where I had cleaned up the week before.  I'll pick that up tomorrow, too.