Graffiti

There has been a strong uptick of graffiti in the park over the last months. It is all through the forest trails, on water fountains, posts, anything that doesn't move. It's always something of a problem, but I'm seeing a lot more of it lately.

I asked Larry Franks at Parks about it. He promptly got a police gang expert out to look at it, and it doesn't seem to be gang related, which is the good news. (And I hadn't noticed any change in the usage of the park over that period, so that makes sense.)

The bad news is that means that some of our regular park users have a destructive bent. So please remember (and remind anyone you see with a spray can) to take only pictures and leave only footprints. We could do without the litterers as well.

Great CA photo

I failed to notice the photo slideshow attached to the article I posted earlier, but Larry Franks of DPS, who took charge of special trash collection for the morning after clean-up, sent me this, and it's too good not to share. The photo is by Nikki Boertman of the CA, and you can see the whole series of photos here.

Good litter pick-up by the zoo

I walked to the Greensward this morning after the 25,000+ influx into the park yesterday fully expecting to find the area trashed and was pleasantly surprised. The zoo has been taking the litter left on the Greensward by its patrons much more seriously this year. They've routinely been putting out a dozen or so trash boxes, scattered around the Greensward, on the days they encroach with their parking, and it's made a huge difference. They've also got their crews clearing up any trash in a more timely manner, which I'm very grateful for.

By 9:30 this morning the zoo's side of the Greensward looked lovely. There was an uptick of litter over the "line of demarcation" from the Doughboy to the sign by the lake that marks off the section where they park. This litter wasn't there yesterday, so it's fair to assume that at least some of it was the record zoo crowd, but there wasn't nearly as much as I would have expected, and the zoo did a great job of cleaning up their end of things. This has been a much bigger problem in years past, and I truly appreciate their addressing it and withdrawing from the Greensward leaving it looking as good as they found it on parking overflow days.

Cargill stepping up again

I keep seeing Cargill in the news lately doing wonderful, civic-minded sorts of things. The latest is that they're sponsoring a clean-up, along with Living Lands and Waters, of the Wolf River Harbor downtown this Saturday, Dec. 5th, 8am to noon. Bundle up and be ready to get in a john boat and clean up from the water. Since they're providing boats (and lunch!), they need to have a head count ahead of time, so call Matt McLeane at 634-3234 to volunteer. More information at Friends for our Riverfront's website.

Our waterfront definitely needs more tlc, esp. since the city and the the RDC have dragged their heels for years on putting up screens on the storm drains into the harbor. Every time it rains, all the litter on the streets is washed right into the river. We need to be more responsible about what we dump into the Mississippi. If Elmore and I weren't giving our open house this weekend, we'd be right down there in our kayaks to help out.

Volunteer Week

According to almost every comic strip in the paper this morning, it's volunteer week. Take this opportunity to pick up a little litter in the park where you walk/run/take your dog. The less trash on the ground, the less likely other people are to throw trash. Sadly this is not 100% effective, but I do believe it's a deterrent to littering if a space is beautifully clean. Maybe we can test that theory this week.

Bottle Bill

I got this from our former board member Don Richardson. We do have a litter problem in Memphis (we're now far from our days of winning prizes for being the cleanest city in the country), and a good bit of the trash I see both in the Old Forest and the Harbor downtown is bottles and cans. I'm curious to learn more about this new proposal:

Keeping Memphis Green means keeping

Memphis CLEAN! We can't keep using our

parks, streets, streams & landscape as a

garbage can...

Return the Returnables

A Public Forum on Tennessee's Bottle Bill

Thursday evening, Sept. 17

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Agricenter - Expo building Amphitheater

(Look for the red dome on the roof)

A public forum on the proposed "Bottle Bill", the

litter-and-recycling measure based on a 5-cent

deposit on beverage containers.

In addition to several national authorities and local

perspectives, the panel-style event includes time for

questions and comments from the audience.

Please attend and share your views.

Dog Bags in Kiosks

Plastic bags for picking up dog waste are now back in the kiosks (one in the Rainbow Lake parking area and one by the East Parkway side pavilion). Please either use them or bring your own bags. We've made some progress on encouraging a culture of responsible dog ownership in the park, but there is still a fair amount of dog poop left sitting around. Please help us set a good example and change the culture into one where everyone picks up the park, whether it's litter or poop. I miss the days when Memphis was perpetually voted one of the cleanest cities in America. Let's start bringing that back, beginning with Overton Park.