GNW Green Report: We Need to Take a Walk...

One of the fantastic things about living in a community with a Home Owners Association, or as ours is technically called, a Community Improvement Association, is that everyone is committed to the common good of the area, at least in the form of the yearly assessments due. Through these proceeds, things such as community pools, playgrounds and tennis courts are made available for common use, and we have a staff that can maintain them, run programs and manage the entire effort.

In some bigger associations, like the one we live in, The Great Northwest Community Improvement Association, we have a large greenbelts that can be used for the common benefit of the association residents. In what is commonly thought of as a water run-off area, we have installed picnic tables and grills. I'm sure some associations have running and biking trails carved through their greenbelts, and these are all little add-ons that can make life that much better in the community.At our current rate of yearly assessment, we simply don't have the resources to have the maintenance staff take 100 percent responsibility for keeping this space in pristine condition. When I first heard this, I was sort of surprised, I thought to myself, how bad could it be? To me, a big tractor to mow the grass, a few hours worth of weed whacker action, and it could look like a golf course, right? As one of the volunteers who went out on Saturday for the GNW Goes Green event, I found out it just isn't as easy as that, and why.
I should tell you up front that in my 10 years living here, I had never ventured down to the greenbelt, though as the crow flies, it is only about 1,000 feet from my home. I had always thought the small part from the street looked fairly nice, but never really saw myself taking the dog for a walk out there. I should have gone a long time ago.When it is dry - which is most of the time, the area shares many of the same features as Cathedral Rock Nature Park, just outside the neighborhood. Large boulders and trees that make for an interesting and peaceful walk; the winding creek bed created by years of flash flooding makes a navigable path when dry.

Wearing good shoes and gloves, I walked through with other volunteers, and several of us commented on how this same type of environment brought back enjoyable memories as kids, playing in similar spaces for hours on end. Back before cell phones and Nintendo and The Cartoon Network, it was not uncommon for a group of 12 year old boys to explore the outdoors, climb trees or even take their bikes into such an adventurous area to get what we now call exercise. And the thing is, I don't recall us ever leaving any trash behind.As Central South Texans, we know all about flash flooding and the power of water to move vast amounts of trash and debris miles down what is ordinarily a dry-creek bed. I figured there would be some tree limbs, lots of plastic shopping bags and the occasional piece of junk that had been discarded in some other neighborhood and found its way to our beautiful spaces. Yes, there was that, but it was worse.I was disgusted to find that there was a whole lot of outright littering by residents of our association and from my neighborhood. My neighbors simply tossing their discarded bottles and cans, roofing shingles and old fence boards directly over their back fence into the greenbelt, without an effort to even disguise their behavior by spreading it out as if it was the result of years of floods moving other people's junk.

I'm not trying to sound like someone's grandfather yelling, "Get off my grass, you kids", or to suggest that we go back to the good old days when people had some sort of respect for themselves and for each other. But I do wonder what happened in say the last 10 or 15 years to people and their simple lack of concern for doing the right thing?To this day, I still remember the Public Service Announcement from the 70's where some Indian chief (sorry, Native American) is paddling his canoe up a stream and it is just totally polluted. Then, he looks over and sees a car full of people driving by as they toss a bag full of garbage out of their window. Pan back to the chief and there is a tear coming out of his eye. That public service announcement had an impact on an entire generation of people and this nation cleaned its act up. And somehow it seems to have been lost.
There was one house in particular, that left a small group of us disgusted, and frankly, pissed-off. In what is a nice neighborhood not even 3 or 4 streets from my house, we came upon an area behind a house that has a pool and a back patio cover. Scattered all over the ground were emptied beer and wine bottles (if MD 20/20 is still considered wine), broken furniture pieces and trash. Oh, and these pillars of the community had thoughtfully picked up the dog crap in their yard, placed it in plastic bags, then tossed it right over the fence. You gotta be shittin' me. Toss your dog crap over the fence if that's what you think is right, but in a plastic bag? Thankfully we were all wearing gloves.There was some general discussion about simply throwing all the refuse right back into the yard and moving on, but I tried to reason that perhaps there was an explanation. I was reaching for anything to give these slobs the benefit of the doubt. Then one volunteer pointed out the roof of the patio in this yard. They had trash and old boards thrown on top of it as well.

In other words, these people simply couldn't care less about the community property or their own property. We simply cleaned up the trash and moved along to the next disaster.Lest you think the entire greenbelt was a lost cause, I'm here to tell you that with a little TLC, there is the potential for a really wonderful area. I'm a big fan of the A-Team concept that our association has - volunteers who try to get together for projects that can benefit the community. But we are just getting going again. And this greenbelt requires some assistance. If we could get several groups from churches or scouts or other organizations to help with several volunteer sessions taking a section at a time, I think we could clean up what we just couldn't get to during the Green Day event.

Then, when the flash floods bring brush and debris, between maintenance and other smaller volunteer efforts, we could keep the place clean.

Here is just an idea. If like me, you had never taken a walk through the area, I'd like to suggest that you give it a try. Take a single garbage bag with you and if along the course of your walk, you see an occasional beer can or plastic soda bottle, pick it up. I think you'll enjoy the walk and you'll feel better about the place.

Morning Report: A Little Clean-up...

I joined GNW Board Director Richard Garcia Saturday morning for a little surveying of the hood, and some clean up of the Emerald Valley Park. We did some graffiti clean-up and a lot more trash pick-up over a short few hours, and I just wanted to leave you with a few comments.

When I was a kid, it was drilled into my head about the obscenity of littering. I can tell you that to this day, the sight of somebody tossing trash out the window of a car or leaving a public place in disarray leaves me quite pissed. Graffiti simply elevates that disgust because it is no longer an act of poor manners, but in fact a criminal act.

I'm at a loss as to why we treat this crime as a simple nuisance rather than a crime punishable by 10 whacks with a cane in a public square. In fairness, I have been known to condone the use of water boarding as a means for extracting information from GITMO residents, so I probably don't qualify as an arbiter of reasonable punishment for unruly teenagers.

I don't think that the trash problem is a result of bad kids, I think it is more likely, bad parents. The fact is, we only spent about ten minutes dealing with the graffiti. We easily spent another hour or so picking up plastic bottles, napkins, cups and other assorted items, most often within tossing distance of garbage cans.In other words, people have an easy choice of placing an empty bottle in a garbage can without having to lift a lid even, or placing the empty bottle on the ground less than a foot or two away from the can. They choose the ground.

This is a failure of parents. It is also a failure of the community.

I don't have some long list of what we need to do as a community to fix this problem, but I know that we could start by using the resources we have already paid for. I don't want to make anyone's job harder, but shouldn't our maintenance staff be at least emptying the garbage cans at the parks before the start of the weekend? Aside from the trash that was tossed all over the ground, a few park visitors at least attempted to do the right thing by using the trash cans - several were full beyond capacity.

If this isn't part of the job description for maintenance, how hard would it be to create a handful of part time positions for either some of our senior citizens or some high school aged kids who would spend a few hours a week doing the simple task of picking up the discarded trash left by obnoxious, ill-mannered park patrons (you know - your neighbors), and being certain the garbage cans are empty so those people who want to do the right thing can use them.

Director Garcia mentioned to me that if a group like The A-Team were to do what he and I did over a few hours, it could be knocked out in about 15 minutes. What a great idea.

I don't want to take the burden off of the maintenance department, but this is our community and for the number of residents, we should be able to put together a mob of volunteers for something so simple.

Like many residents, I work full time and can't tell you I can give up 20 hours a week to go pick up some unruly kid's trash or paint over the foul graffiti of some criminal who has no respect for the community he lives in, but 15 to 30 minutes once or twice a month?

I drive by the soccer fields on weekends and I see hundreds of people enjoying our great facilities. What if immediately following a soccer game, the kids and families of two teams hit one of the parks for a 20 minute clean-up? Simply making sure empty soda bottles were in the cans, discarded candy wrappers were picked up and yes, even soiled Pampers were properly disposed of. Parents, there has to be some reason you are enrolling your kids in soccer - surely it has to do with sportsmanship and being part of a team, right? Why not take a few minutes and also teach them to be good citizens? This doesn't have to be an every weekend thing. With the number of soccer teams we have, it could be rotated so each team does it once or twice a season.

I'd love to hear your ideas on how to keep the place clean. I'd also like to hear what you think about the worsening graffiti problem. I tried to submit a suggestion to the board for the budget process, but not quite sure they received the e-mail form I submitted it on. So I'll tell you about it here.

I propose that the board purchase some surveillance camera equipment that would be owned by the association but provided to residents on an temporary basis. I think of these people whose homes line Timber Path Road who are constantly the victims of graffiti. A resident would contact Chief Burton and his security staff to arrange for the loan of the equipment. The security staff could then assist the resident in installing a camera on the resident's property. After the vandals do their deed, the resident could contact SAPD and turn over the evidence to them, and the equipment would be returned to security. Yes, yes, yes, I know - we better consult the lawyers or we could be liable for something. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. ((Please forgive that outburst, it was directed toward the people who can't wipe their nose without first seeing if it is in the By Laws or if the association lawyer thinks it prudent.))

I don't expect this idea to end world hunger, but I think it is a step in the right direction toward identifying these little bastards and taking some action toward letting their parents know what their precious little Rembrandt's are up to on Friday nights.

A second suggestion I have is to provide the security staff with a digital camera. I believe that every incident of graffiti should be photographed and cataloged by date and location of the crime. I'm next expecting Chief Burton and his staff to be Jim Rockford or Magnum PI, but how hard is it to snap a picture and record the location and date. The point of this catalog is to attempt to allow the SAPD to make a connection to other crimes the vandals of done when the catch someone via the surveillance cameras mention above.

I fully understand that handing the district attorney a bunch of pictures of graffiti is not going to send these little punks off to Huntsville, but I suspect that a SAFFE Officer showing up at the home and presenting the information to parents might help get their attention.

Aside from busting out shotguns and patrolling the streets (which I oppose) what suggestions do you have as to how to deal with this situation? Tell me about.