Huntington Needs To Come Clean!

About two-years ago, I personally adopted a portion of 8th Avenue in Huntington. My adoptive “spot”, which is from 10th Street to 16th Street, was so littered that it took me three-weeks to dig up the several layers of glass and plastic bottles and newspapers, not to mention the plastic bags that lined the bushes and were flapping in the wind. Oh, yes, and thousands of cigarette butts tossed as if all of the Earth were one big ashtray.

Adopt YOUR Block - Be a Litter-Gitter promotes litter control in every neighborhood of our city, and I personally continue to maintain the neighborhood of Kanawha Terrace on the Southside, which is my home-area. I have continued to keep my “spot” along 8th Avenue clean and neat, and the City of Huntington has been good to keep the grass cut along the avenue. But within 72-hours it is again littered by passing motorists and pedestrians.

No doubt about it, trash is ugly. It spells defeat and a lack of concern. It makes a city with old and interesting neighborhoods look sad and abused, and despite years of anti-litter slogans and community cleanups, it is still a problem. I truly do not understand the mentality. I do not think anybody picks anything up that drops anymore. You drive up to any intersection and look down, someone has emptied his or her ashtray, and you think, “What makes you think that's OK?” I truly believe that, if you allow yourself to live in trash, you will accept that as normal. Yes, you will live in a “trashy” neighborhood. My feeling is we have to keep fighting it.

The real key, as many of my friends and business associates remind me, is ENFORCEMENT! Others cities are successfully combating litter and open-dumps; why can't our city government? Huntington needs to come clean!