Beechmont Neighborhood Association

Litter

Solutions

War is Declared on Litter

Apr 11, 2002
The complete disregard for the environment along the area thoroughfares is indeed appalling, indeed worthy of being brought to the notice of local authorities.
Local activists have long been telling us about the splendor of the Old Louisville Preservation District, how our wealth of 19th century architecture is virtually unrivaled in the American Midwest. If it is disheartening to see an interstate highway sullied by refuse, how much more the case when litter defaces an historic and residential district!
We live in Old Louisville, and sometimes it feels as though we are in a constant state of putting out brushfires: almost daily cleaning of the area in front of our house and of the surrounding block is, depressingly, to little avail. The streets and sidewalks are just as cluttered and filthy by the next morning; sometimes they are a mess within the hour. On a number of occasions I have stood at the door of my house and watched passing drivers open their windows to toss fast food wrappers and the contents of their ashtrays onto the street as they race to beat the light at the corner. Perhaps they forget that people live in the houses they pass, but as is more likely and more disturbing, perhaps they couldn't care less that somebody lives here.
There has long been a county-wide favoritism toward our eastern suburbs, though the civic and media powers that be may choose to deny it. We all know that this problem would not be allowed to happen in St. Matthews or in the Hurstborne area--editorials would harangue, petitions would circulate, and the cleaning would be done, and with more manpower than is available to a handful of harried residents. Getting all of us to work together toward the approaching merger would be so much easier if the urban neighborhoods--from the West End and Portland to Crescent Hill and the Highlands--were not constantly made to feel that they are the dog that the tail is wagging. How easy a beginning it would be to stand up for the small things, to enforce more vigilantly in all neighborhoods the laws and ordinances that preserve the quality of life in any neighborhood.
I know there are laws on the books against littering in the city. Indeed, the promise to enforce more strictly Louisville's anti-noise regulations is a hopeful sign that the city still fights the good fight against some kinds of pollution. Citizens in your urban neighborhoods would owe you a debt of gratitude if you were simply to endorse the following:
1. Post in clear sight, on all city thoroughfares, warnings against littering, and be sure that the fine for such transgressions is posted as well, and
2. Enforce these rules and exact these fines.

I can guarantee you'd find an ample source of short-term revenue in Old Louisville, because there's someone littering our block every hour. But more importantly, you would affirm the sense of community we are all striving to create, by reminding commuters that the streets they follow to their front doors pass by our doors as well.