Dirt

Driving in to work this morning, I noticed a lot of litter on one of the streets near my home.  This is not really a strange situation as this street habitually has litter on it.  In fact, it is one of the streets in this rag tag town I live in that looks the worst 8 out of 7 days of the week.  I also know that litter is not a major issue to most people.  But then again, I am not most people and it bothers the heck out of me.

I continue to try to come to terms about how people can live in unkempt conditions.  I get really upset when I come home and have to police the area in front of my house and pick up soda bottles, discarded napkins, French fry boxes, and the like.  Why don't others do the same?  It boggles the mind. 

Litter is just another broken window which is part of a theory about crime in urban environments. 

The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments in a well-ordered condition may stop further vandalism and escalation into more serious crime.

Many have subscribed to this theory (which you can read about here) including me, and the upshot of it is that one way to control crime is to pick up the litter as well as maintain an orderly environment. I also understand that generally people think I am nuts to be so obsessed with getting the litter off the streets, and fortunately I am not the only one on my block who cares this much.  Regardless, considering that in my little block things rarely happen, I think picking up the litter on a daily basis supports the broken window theory and until otherwise I am a staunch believer.