Parker: War on blight in Trenton is getting exhausting
Cleanliness met up with anonymity yesterday morning as an elderly man swept in front of his home on Walnut Ave.
“Don’t take my picture. And, no, don’t use my name. I don’t want any trouble,” he said.
Being clean in this filthy city should not attract trouble although one might understand that a misplaced comment about other residents indifference toward tidy living could cause negative reaction.
This small sweep occurred just before 7 a.m. as sunlight peeked through trees. Some of the rays bounced off two boarded up homes where weeds reached incredible heights.
A white sheet inscribed with memories of another city murder victim hung near the man’s home and just up the block, a lot held one discarded sofa and other dumped items. This war against blight is hell.
Next to this lot stands a home being devoured by a matrix of weeds and vines almost to the point that the space appears more jungle than urban residential area.
Trash, weeds and furniture seem imbedded on three blocks of Walnut Ave. while garbage cans brim with debris. This is not about a street sweeper brigade moving through a disenfranchised neighborhood. Decades of disinterest by city officials and acceptance of plight delivered depression as every morning delivers the same views of discontent and hopelessness.
Take a look at the two photos of this house on Walnut Ave. They were captured a year apart, one in June 2017 and the second in June 2018. This is not rocket science. City officials should take a bulldozer or wrecking ball to these deplorable homes.
It’s disheartening to think that a significant number of residents have no pride, almost as if some social vampire sucked all self value out of their bone marrow or hearts.
“The kids don’t know no better,” the Walnut Ave. man offered. That’s part of the equation as parents cultivate negative attitudes about being clean.
People sit on stoops surrounded by garbage, bottles and other trashy items, accepting their condition as an inevitability. Nearly every city resident, many of them born in the Deep South, voice similar memories about being dirt poor in places like Douglas, GA, Hattiesburg, MS or Tallahassee, FL. “We were poor but our clothes and homes were clean” remains a verbal thread that runs through most stories about black lives back in the day. Of course, the deterioration of Trenton includes serious issues in places where immigrants reside. Many have no idea about city rules, laws and what’s expected of them when they arrive here. A fear of being perceived as anti-immigrant runs rampant through Trenton as if requesting cleanliness should be made only to people born here. Achieving a clean Trenton will require truth and perhaps even tough words or actions but this city will never find revitalization until we produce real conversations that demand people adhere to our ordinances and laws.