Friday, August 24, 2012

I Found Neighbors That Like Picking Up Trash! (Also, Chicago's Underground Infrastructure Needs Your Help)

While I was walking to the Global Garden to care for my lot there of vegetables and herbs, I came across a  handmade sign in the grass. I promptly lost it. 

As in, I lost it in the sense that I got insanely happy, not in the "I lost it because I went crazy" sense.

(But hey, that too maybe? I mean, who my age really enjoys working within their community to make the neighborhood better? I literally get an intellectual  lady boner, if you don't mind me being vulgar, by these communal activities. How do I explain my desire to make my surroundings better, to be part of something that is bigger than me, without sounding like a freak? This is real life, okay?)  



And now, to make this post less about me and Generation Y and more about the city and people of Chicago...



One of my favorite places to clean when I am picking up trash in the street is over the sewer grates. These get especially clogged in the fall and winter. If you look, the holes in the grate are so tiny! Smaller than a quarter, if I am remembering correctly! These holes are as tiny as they are because these sewers were built more than a hundred years ago!

Good thing Mayor Rahm is moving on that.  (Actually, both Alderman have been pretty good about upgrading our sewers over these last few years.)  Remember that massive sinkhole on Elston last year (and in the same neighborhood Rahm said he grew up in but then really didn't)? And, damn, Palatine had a large sinkhole last year too. And so did the South Side, at least two last year. Wait, and the Montrose Sinkhole 4 years ago?

Kenilworth Village President Steingraber declared their sewer system as 120 years old and in dire need of an overhaul in 2011. Kenilworth is a 30 minute drive from Chicago.

Is Chicago's as old?     

(Also 8am on a Saturday!?)


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