Roadshow: San Jose may enlist homeless to pick up highway trash
By Gary Richards
Originally posted on 10/05/2014 here
Q We couldn’t be more in agreement with the sentiments expressed on litter in the San Jose area. We have formed a task force of the Campus Community Association’s Beautification Committee to improve the condition of the Interstate 280 ramps at 10th and 11th Streets, gateways to our city. We are very interested that Caltrans plans to meet with South Bay leaders to consider remedies.
Susan Snydal
Freeway Gateway Task Force
A Me, too. This week the San Jose Streets Team will be launching a proposed solution to the city’s trash and graffiti problem at a portion of the freeways where the city actually has some control: offramps. It’s being called the “San Jose Gateways Initiative,” focusing on ramps where nearby employers and companies are willing to pitch in a few bucks to clean up.
Here are some ideas being considered, according to San Jose Councilman Sam Liccardo: “You’ll see Streets Team employing homeless individuals in the cleanup in exchange for housing and food vouchers. Team members will also be planting flowers and painting over graffiti.”
Q You indicate that you’ve been writing about this trash and graffiti problem for 10 years and implied that the problem “is not worse.” This points to how ineffective your articles have been in effecting substantive change. How is it that North Carolina and many cities can fix the problem and we here in San Jose cannot? You should address these issues with more vigor and press much harder for action.
San Jose, the so-called “heart of Silicon Valley,” has become one of the ugliest and trashiest cities in the nation. We should all be embarrassed, and we should press our government representatives to do something much more effective about this and not let another 10 years go by with essentially nothing substantive being done.
Ben Reasons
San Jose
A Hey, I’m trying. I once had a merry team cleaning the Highway 87 interchange at Santa Teresa Boulevard. We’ve put away our trash bags, but now I write about it to prod action.
Q Gary, is there still a way to report people throwing cigarettes out the window? Please don’t use my name, as I have friends who smoke. … Can you share all the letters you have received in support of throwing cigarette butts out the window? You must have a lot, because I see it every day and smoking drivers are receiving approval from somebody!
D.N. and Jonathon Martinsen
A There is no litter hotline anymore, but you can call the city’s graffiti hotline at 1-866-249-0543 or e-mail antigraffiti@sanjoseca.gov. By the way, cigarette butts are the No. 1 form of trash on our roads.
Q I used to live in Palo Alto and loved your columns! In Atlanta, I listened to an attorney, Neil Boortz, on the radio. He had a law office he owned. One day while looking out the window, he saw a woman dump her ashtray onto his beautiful, pristine pavement before she went into a shopping center. He dashed out with his super glue and stuck all those butts onto her windshield.
Gloria Bryant
Lynchburg, Virginia
A Now there’s an attorney to admire.