One of my time-worn homilies (my kids have heard this multiple times):
The quality of the participants is determined by the price of admission.
People aren’t trashing the country club, or the yacht club, or anywhere there’s a high price to get in. But free admission will attract assholes like ants to honey. I don’t know why this is; I personally act the same no matter where I am.
Case in point:
Our neighborhood has a really nice lakeside park. At first we left it open for everyone, but the asshole crowd and their unsupervised kids made it unusable. Between their trash, the incessant need for attention (loud music) and their childish macho displays (bully-breed dogs, loud motorbikes, etc.) we finally decided to lock it down. We gated the entire place, added lights and video cameras, and arranged thru the local police for access to license plate databases. Now any car that appears there, whether inside or outside the gates is checked. If deemed to be “non-residents” the car is quickly towed. And it’s seriously expensive – it tends to get their attention. After this our park is now safe, quiet and enjoyable for us. The price of entry went from zero, to six figures (that of a nice suburban home).
The consistent exception to this rule seems to be sporting events (which have an abundance of assholes, despite the high ticket price). I suppose it has to do with team rivalry, etc.
There were jerks when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. It’s not like it’s universal behavior. But it only takes a couple of kids who think it’s funny to throw a brick through a window at a construction site or smash someone’s mailbox with a bat.
If anything, I think it’s better than it was decades ago. Back in the 90s in NYC, Giuliani made a big deal about “broken window theory” in cleaning up subway graffiti and petty criminals. That’s a big reason why modern NYC is a backdrop for sitcoms and romantic comedies where 70s and early 80s NYC was a backdrop for dystopian and/or crime films.
they’re not stupid, they just don’t give a crap. I’m amazed at how some people will deliberately turn into utter pigs solely because they know they don’t have to clean up after themselves. meanwhile, I’m the one who actually folds and hangs up the towels when I’m staying at a hotel.
God, no. When I was a kid it was beer bottles. Fucking broken beer bottles everywhere. This is one of the reasons I am not really fond of public drunkenness. Drunks throw their beer bottles, they make a mess, they trash things, they pee everywhere, and then they throw up.
I see less trash now, especially doggie poop. Dog owners were one of the biggest perpetrators. They never cared. “Why should I clean it up? It’s just poop. Maybe you shouldn’t be so worried about your LAWN.” Never mind that I have to step in it.
Now 99.9% of the people in my neighborhood pick up after their dog (there’s always one asshole and he always has mastiffs for some reason.)
Also people used to throw stuff out of their cars. I did it once as a child and my dad gave me such a lecture.
What I see a lot of is drink containers. people drink their soda and then just…throw it on the floor? I don’t really get that mentality.
I think there are jerks in every generation. I just don’t believe that this one is somehow way dirtier or more evil than the previous.
I wouldn’t do that if I was you. Towels hung neatly look unused and aren’t necessarily changed for the next guest.
If you want to do that when you’re staying multiple days, fine. But don’t hang used towels on your last morning. Piled in the tub / shower is a good place; easy for the help to find and inventory.
I’m old enough to remember the “Keep America Beautiful” anti-littering campaign. It was very effective in itself, and also inspired a lot of places to institute littering fines, place trash cans, etc.
Maybe it’s wearing off.
This seems odd to me; I’d say that around here (Alabama) there’s less littering (especially in terms of throwing trash out a car window) than there used to be. Now, I’m not talking about intentional vandalism, but just sort of laziness and “not my problem” messes.
There are other ways governments can fight litter.
I can notice the difference in crossing the Minnesota-Iowa border. Iowa has much fewer pop cans tossed into the roadside ditches than Minnesota. And the reason is that Iowa has a 5¢ per can deposit paid for empty cans, and Minnesota has none.
At horse shows & other events in Iowa, I’ve seen teenagers (7 older slobs) from Minnesota just tossing their empty pop cans aside, and enterprising kids from Iowa coming around to pick them up.
In 1975, every rural road in Aus. was lined, both sides, with a continuous array of steel cans. Mostly drink cans, but also spam, baked beans, fruit tins - all kinds of odd things mixed in with the beer cans and fruit juice.
All gone now, along with the mile posts. No simple single reason, but the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign, the introduction of aluminium cans, and the spread of air-conditioning were surely contributing factors
It helps if people are hired to actually come and empty the trash cans. A number of cities have reduced taxes by reducing maintenance, and unfortunately that includes care of public parks
And I agree there are people that are pigs, but if the trash isn’t emptied animals get in and will empty it for you…
I also want to add that there’s more people and the same amount of parkland. There’s probably more trash just beause of that.
In most parts of the world, you reduce litter by removing trash cans. I understand that will seem strange to some people, but it’s an observed well-known fact, so it doesn’t have to be logical or rational.
Partial explanations I’ve seen include the observation that trash blows out of trash bins, that people add trash to overflowing trash bins, and that the existance of trash bins normallizes the process of leaving behind trash.
My earlier post mentions trash in the abscence of trash bins, so I’m not saying that doesn’t happen. Just that adding trash bins often makes things worse.
There’s something to that, alas. There seems to be a perversity in the human spirit, that causes people to throw stuff on the ground near a trash bin.
(Also, I’ve noticed some tendency for people to urinate inside outhouses…but not into the cess-hole, but on the floor nearby it. I’ve also seen people taking a pee against the outside wall of the outhouse.)
After this our park is now safe, quiet and enjoyable for us. The price of entry went from zero, to six figures (that of a nice suburban home).