Ward 14-you are witnessing the planned abandonment, evidently of the entire City of Cleveland.   This is how property is redistributed in America.  Does this all look familiar?  It should.  This is same untermensch mentality that operated to fuel the Nazi death machine.  
 

It depend, the sidewalk is usually the owner of the properties responsibility. The city can make the repairs and then charge the owner on their tax bill. The council members can choose to spend their personal allotment on sidewalk repair, some do. Some think that’s a waste of money, nice new sidewalks and the homes are falling apart. The vacant lots are the same, if not mowed the city does it and then charges the owners tax bill. The streets gets street cleaning periodically and trash is picked up at the curb once a week.

The Downtown Cleveland Alliance picks up trash, the private sector formed the alliance and the collect money from the members of that alliance and they use that to pay people to pick up litter.

The StockYards used to have an annual neighborhood clean up, they would go around whacking weeds and cleaning out trash from fence lines. I could never see a difference other than large trash container surrounded by trash in vacant lots, and the endless amount of contractors dumping construction debris into them at all hours.

The trash is from kids and adults that just drop it, but also from dogs and cats that rip open bags in the night before trash day. The cats in that area all know when it trash night, you can hear them fighting in the street over it. The dogs usually do not fight over the trash, that usually results in a bizarre orgy when they come in contact with each other. But they will both rip open the bags if it has meat scraps in it.

People should clean their own lots, I did everyday when I lived there, picked up all the garbage and there was always some. People drive buy were I live now and they throw the fast food bags right out the window and the forty ounce bottles, usually old English 800 or some kind of cheap fruit based wine. The lawn always has a empty bag from cheetos or barbecued pork rinds, or skittles or starbursts…they just drop it when they are done.

How do you feel about the police driving around stopping people with dogs, giving them a citation if they do not have something to collect the poop? In Japan they were doing something with scanned codes and purchasing cards. That would tell you who bought it and then who did not dispose of it properly even if the cat rips open the bag its your fault. They could suck up all the trash then scan it and then bill you for the clean up.   

I noticed that the lower the social economic class the more trash they create, some people literally have small mountain on the lawn every week. The people that are higher up then have one little tiny bag neatly tied up. Its true! It could be the difference between never home always working and sitting in front of the TV all day with four toddlers and a out of work boyfriend, cousin, neighbor…..making trash? Then when you go to wall mart it seems that everyone has a huge cart full or potential trash, huge people with huge cart loads of crap. That all becomes trash and eventually on the front lawn on a windy day with your cat or dog ripping open every bag on the street.

Who is responsible for that?

I understand that trash comes from multiple sources but who is responsible for picking it up?  I clean up the trash around my yard, I even pick up anything that I find thrown on the street in front of my home.  Fortunately for all who live on my street the majority of people do this. 

But, if it is a main street like Fulton Avenue or an empty lot like the one on W 25th and Trowbridge that is strewn with litter couldn't the city take responsibility for keeping it clean?  I wouldn't go so far as to use the scanning method because I don't see that great of a need to blame someone and charge them, but it would be nice if the city took enough pride in the area to find a way to clean it.    Or if the owner of a large lot would send their maintenance people over there to keep it clean, that would be good also.

I forgot to mention in the previous post that the area around the Boys & Girls Club, side that faces Sackett and the side that faces the Ally is also disgracefully filled with trash and weeds, especially along the fence line.  Doesn't the Boys and Girls Club have anyone assigned to keeping the outside of the center clean?  I keep thinking that this wouldn't be something we would find at a recreation center in most suburban areas, and I really don't think the children are that much different in those areas and so much neater.  I am willing to bet that those areas have someone who is paid to keep it clean.  Why can't we have the same services here? 

I hope whomever wins the council election will address this issue.  It really makes the whole area look trashy and gives the impression that nobody cares. 

Ward 14 is a bellwether--as goes Ward 14, so goes the region.