Trash Picking on Spring and Palm

Earlier this year, my oldest daughter, Lainey, and I “adopted” Spring Street (Palm - 94) through the City of La Mesa’s “Adopt a Block” program. We filed an application, were finger printed, given a safety lesson and supplied with trash pickers and glowing neon yellow safety vests.

We chose Spring Street because it is a main artery of La Mesa, it is a major entry and exit of La Mesa and it really needs help. We added Palm to our efforts as well.

While filling several large Hefty bags of trash, certain thoughts come to mind (nothing like mindless labor to get the mind to labor)

a) While a breeze is great for sailing and kite flying, it’s awful for trash picking

b) Someone needs to invent a trash bag that stays open

c) The world must have been a beautiful place before the onslaught of plastic

d) There is not one damn good reason for the existence of cigarettes

e) Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is not a myth

f) I wish I were ambidextrous, my left hand might as well be a left foot

g) What my daughter and I are doing is pretty useless

By useless, I’m fully aware we are improving the looks of certain areas but it’s only temporary and there is only so much volunteers can do.

There needs to be a permanent operation clearing the copious amounts of trash and weeds throughout La Mesa, this is simply a baseline service that should be covered in the $36M collected in taxes & fees by La Mesa annually.

I know I’m walking areas that have not been tended to in a long, long time.

If we want to retain and attract quality residents and businesses and be a safe prosperous city, we have to be a city on the upswing, not the decline.