Well, At Least My Streets Are Clean!

It has always been my belief that as a taxpayer you are in essence a customer. I believe this because the taxes that you pay are for services that include protection and other essential needs.  Anytime that you pay someone for product/services you are a customer and that entitles you the right to question the quality or lack of service that you receive.

So, I live in a smaller community (16,000 people approximately).  We do have a fair number of amenities, stores, banks, medical services and so on.  But there is still somewhat of a small town feel to this place.  The roads are kept in decent shape, we have fire and police service, although there are constant discussions about the lack of funding for adequate staffing of the police force.  In the one newspaper that we have left in the area, there was an article that brought to light the fact that our police station is woefully understaffed.

I have to believe that first responders should always be pretty high on the priority scale as their services are pretty critical. However, we do have an animal control person, although that individual rarely leaves their house (maybe twice a week), that is a blog for another day.  But here is one of our city services that will blow your mind–it is a street sweeper—you heard me right, a street sweeper.  Once a month this noisy, lumbering, over-sized vacuum cleaner (it is huge) traverses our neighborhoods in search of the dropped cigarette butt.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe in keeping our city clean, however, I think a town of this size does not need a New York City-sized street cleaner.

Here’s what really blows my gasket, this street sweeper has to be fairly expensive to operate, maintain and staff.  Remember, we have been told that we cannot afford adequate police/fire protection staffing on our current tax base.  Our streets are becoming less safe, but holy shit they look good.  Why they are so clean that you could eat off of them (you won’t ever catch me doing it).  It makes me wonder, who the hell sets the priorities of this city?  I guess the next person of priority is the one who goes around cleaning the lamps on the streetlights.

I could see having a smaller sweeper working the streets of the city proper, but the neighborhoods can surely self-maintain themselves.  If there is a nail or rubbish on your streets for crying out loud pick it up yourself.  Possibly, the city could hire a service to come around every 6 months or so (especially, in the neighborhoods), to sweep things up which might be easier on our budget and would open up more funding for emergency personnel.

I believe the biggest problem in this situation is the lack of accountability and those who report it, I mentioned earlier that there is only one newspaper in the county.  This county newspaper has to cover eight cities and numerous unincorporated small communities.  It is owned by one of the largest corporate media companies in the flyover territory.  The papers budget has been slashed over the last few years and its content reduced to just a few pages per daily publication.  So there really isn’t a true news desk dedicated to our town.

Obviously, newspapers are becoming dinosaurs but in their place is a massive growth of web-based reporting sites.  Maybe it is time to build a non-profit webpage and hire a few young journalists to pound the pavement and get some answers.   The funny thing about all of this is that our town serves as the county seat, yet we do not get as much reporting as many of the other towns in our county.  Without someone watching, bad politics and reckless spending can run amuck in any town regardless of its size or population.

So many questions need to be answered, do we really need our streets vacuumed or do we need safer streets?  Makes you wonder, are there other pork barrel projects in our city politics that may be hidden from the public view?  In the meantime, we are a candidate for the coveted “Cleanest Streets in America” award!

Talk to Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @ 2019 All Rights Reserved