City streets remain littered

As a young man arriving in San Francisco 57 years ago, I remember being struck with the sparkling cleanliness of the city. Sadly, that no longer exists. There has been a sea of ink and dialog about how the city needs to fix this, but not one word about how all that trash got there in the first place.

Every piece of litter fouling our streets was put there by someone. In addition to expecting City Hall to fix this, the issue of littering should also be addressed. I see people mindlessly toss litter onto the sidewalks every day ... with no consequence. When I was a child in the 1950s, there was a national anti-litter campaign, and it worked. In addition to spending millions to fix this problem, we also need to emphasize individual responsibility regarding this out-of-control situation. Also, just like a cardboard box, shouldn’t a scooter abandoned in the middle of a sidewalk be considered trash?

Dan Blackwelder, San Francisco