Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Calling all sweepers! Report to La Sanbe ASAP !

Baaaaaaroooooooom !

I have to admit that it's been a long time since I've seen a sweeper around town. The urban sprawl has made it necessary for Laredoans to drive practically everywhere. The busiest, most trafficable thoroughfares are made primarily for auto traffic. You will seldom see any pedestrians at all along Loop 20, McPherson, Del Mar, Saunders , HWY 83 and the new Cuatro Vientos Road. The speeding cars usually zoom by and, perhaps as a result of that, very rarely is any litter found in these parts of town. People are less likely to open their car windows and toss out any trash when they're going at a considerable rate of speed. Yet, along some of the city's older streets, there is a slower pace, more pedestrians and consequently, more littering.

Laredo's vaunted San Bernardo avenue definitely falls under the slow-moving category. As such, there is a substantial amount of littering clearly visible along the historic avenue. Yesterday, as I drove southbound from Calton Road on La Sanbe, I couldn't help notice what a difference it would make to bring in an old-fashioned sweeper .  Flattened paper & plastic cups, tattered plastic bags, empty plastic bottles, old newspapers and other assorted scattered papers were strewn all around. 

What's the city waiting for? Do they think that simply assigning the elegant-sounding Spanish designation of La Avenida San Bernardo will magically make everything spic n span?  I've heard about the power of words- but a huge broom would probably be more in order.

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