How about making Sheffield a better place?

[identyfik]

Hello everybody, let me share a few thoughts with you.

 

But first – a little background – I’ve never visited Shefield before, I live here for 2 weeks by now, and probably will spend a few more (or much more if I’ll find a nice job - anybody wants to hire an IT guy? But enough off-topic. For the last two weeks I was walking, running and cycling (I even bought a bike to be able to see more) a lot of miles through whole Sheffield. And I must admit that it’s a really nice place with full potential, but... why it’s so dirty? Why is there so much trash everywhere?

 

That unfortunately was my first impression. When my father asked where do I live now so he could watch it on Google Maps – I gave him my Darnall address, but warned him that it will look more like Onslow’s area and less like Hyacinth Bucket’s neighbourhood (both I and my dad were the fans of “Keeping Up Appearances”). I admit that I’ve met a few wonderful people already and I must say that I’ve exchanged smiles and small talks with about hundred of people – on footpaths, bike lines, on queues in shops and EVERYONE was nice and helpful if needed. You really have great people here in Sheffield. But my dad didn’t see the people – he saw the streets, and it didn’t look good.

 

So what could we do (I say “we” as I already feel like a part of this community)? Probably a lot of people thought about it already so I may repeat what they said but still let me share my thoughts.

 

1. Where are the trashcans? Quite often I had to walk a lot with a piece of trash in my hand because I couldn’t find a place to throw it away. Many others will not have so much patience and just throw it on the street. I even had a quite funny situation when I was in a shop with a friend who was eating an apple. Apple was eaten, the core as left, so she asked a seller if there is a trashcan in the shop. He said no and that there is one outside a shop. We walked out and there was NO trashcan. Well, it was just an apple core so she threw it away on some field, but I’ve seen people eating something and just throwing remainders on the sidewalk. I was quite shocked for the first time.
   
2. How about proposing a contest for the people of Sheffield – cleanest street (or part of the street) will mean some prizes for the citizens – people like competition and may try to make their neighbourhood cleaner.
   
3. Bags of trash abandoned on the streets. I see literally bags full of trash that are left n the street for more than a week. In case of more abandoned streets – maybe no one noticed it, but hey, if people know that there’s a phone number/e-mail/something else that would allow them to let someone know “someone should be sent there to pick it up before the bags will break and there will be a lot of trash everywhere”. Maybe if they will see that they can change something and that trashbags will disappear – they will take more care about it? About THEIR OWN city?
   
4. Footpaths. Some of them are in really bad condition. A lot of nettles, thistles etc. won’t make them more popular. And a city should have people on the streets – yes, city centre is the different thing, but outside of it it seems that people are only commuting work-home-shop etc. There need to be more park areas – cleaner, with at least some basic infrastructure as benches etc.
   

Well, I have a lot of other thoughts and probably will have a few new every day, but probably my post is too long already and noone even got to this point. Anyway - at least I've tried

You have a nice city. Have a great one

[Starlc]

darnall says it all ! The area is a hole and in holes there is rubbish !

 

Move to a nice area and you will find people respect it and try to keep it clean and nice.

[identyfik]

darnall says it all ! The area is a hole and in holes there is rubbish !

 

Move to a nice area and you will find people respect it and try to keep it clean and nice.

 

Yes, I know that Darnall is not the best area, that's why I said that I've visited most of other parts of Sheffield. And in every area there were streets that were clean and there were streets that were not. So I wouldn't narrow it to Darnall area only.

Yes, I'm aware that the situation depends on if the people living in the particular street are respecting their neighbourhood or not. But should we give up and let the people who care less create such opinion about such a great city?

[Starlc]

Yes, I know that Darnall is not the best area, that's why I said that I've visited most of other parts of Sheffield. And in every area there were streets that were clean and there were streets that were not. So I wouldn't narrow it to Darnall area only.

Yes, I'm aware that the situation depends on if the people living in the particular street are respecting their neighbourhood or not. But should we give up and let the people who care less create such opinion about such a great city?

 

I agree with you but people with be people and you will find there are plenty who couldnt give a monkeys, think its a up hill battle in some areas.

[identyfik]

I agree with you but people with be people and you will find there are plenty who couldnt give a monkeys, think its a up hill battle in some areas.

 

True. And I'm not a dreamer, I know that it's not going to be a quick and easy process. But maybe, step by step and using small steps something can be done? As I said - putting some more trashcans in the city is not a great cost. I've seen on some of them notes that "if the trash is full - call the number, someone will empty it" - and that was great idea. That also mean that some nice steps were done already, why stop there?

 

In some areas local law said "you need to take care of your neighbourhood, sidewalk in front of your house is something you should take care of". It doesn't mean that "oh, someone has dropped a bottle so it's my job to clean it" - but maybe "number of bottles on my sidewalk is getting bigger, let's call someone to pick it up... and oh well, I guess nothing will happen if I pick up a bottle once in a while".

 

You know - some people may think "there's so many trash around, if I'll drop one more - nothing will change". That's (quite) popular thinking. But maybe "what a nice street, I won't drop that bottle, besides in ten steps I'll get to the nearest bin" sounds better?

[Starlc]

True. And I'm not a dreamer, I know that it's not going to be a quick and easy process. But maybe, step by step and using small steps something can be done? As I said - putting some more trashcans in the city is not a great cost. I've seen on some of them notes that "if the trash is full - call the number, someone will empty it" - and that was great idea. That also mean that some nice steps were done already, why stop there?

 

In some areas local law said "you need to take care of your neighbourhood, sidewalk in front of your house is something you should take care of". It doesn't mean that "oh, someone has dropped a bottle so it's my job to clean it" - but maybe "number of bottles on my sidewalk is getting bigger, let's call someone to pick it up... and oh well, I guess nothing will happen if I pick up a bottle once in a while".

 

You know - some people may think "there's so many trash around, if I'll drop one more - nothing will change". That's (quite) popular thinking. But maybe "what a nice street, I won't drop that bottle, besides in ten steps I'll get to the nearest bin" sounds better?

 

I think it depends how you are as a person. When i have a rapper or a bottle, rubbish of any kind, my first thought is looking for the nearest bin to dispose of it, i think in the areas that are in question there is no thought just dropped and no care.

[identyfik]

I think it depends how you are as a person. When i have a rapper or a bottle, rubbish of any kind, my first thought is looking for the nearest bin to dispose of it, i think in the areas that are in question there is no thought just dropped and no care.

 

Good for you But my guess would be that there are people like you and me that will find that bin (sooner or later), there also people that won't care (and it will take forever to change them), BUT there's also a group of people that would use that bin if that won't mean that they will have to search it for 15 minutes. That's the group of people that we should fight for. Let's give them a chance to behave more social. After that - maybe there will be chance for the "won't care" group.

[mickyboy]

The sad thing years ago there were bins, public toilets, bandstands etc, streets that were litter free and reasonably safe to walk in and Darnall was a poor but clean working class area that was self policing to an extent, and people were not embarassed to have any connection with it. This was in common with loads of areas in Sheffield and other cities.

Just check out a site called Picture Sheffield run by Sheffield libraries, you'll see the streets of Darnall were cleaner in the 60's 70's and 80's when the old houses were being demolished than they are now

The problem unfortunately are the inhabitants of these area who in the majority just don't care.

Society is unfortunately stuck with it now.

Edited July 30, 2016 by mickyboy

[identyfik]

The sad thing years ago there were bins, public toilets, bandstands etc, streets that were litter free and reasonably safe to walk in and Darnall was a poor but clean working class area that was self policing to an extent, and people were not embarassed to have any connection with it. This was in common with loads of areas in Sheffield and other cities.

Just check out a site called Picture Sheffield run by Sheffield libraries, you'll see the streets of Darnall were cleaner in the 60's 70's and 80's when the old houses were being demolished than they are now

The problem is unfortutnatly the people. We re stuck with it now.

 

Well - it's sad to hear that. I don't know much about history of Sheffield and I see remainders of steel industry around the city and understand that times for Sheffield are different now. I was born and lived most of my life in a city that had almost all the workplaces related to making fabrics, clothes etc. One day everything crashed, factories were closed one by one, people were losing jobs. It was about 20 years ago. It still is not the best place in the world, but it's trying to rise again.

 

I see similarities between Sheffield and my city. And hope that both will be all right.

 

Regarding the people - tough topic. I know that people from different countries have different habits and Sheffield is a mix a many different cultures. But still, people who are guests here should show some respect to others. I guess that the fact that Sheffield generally voted for "Brexit" had something to do with "I want everything to be like in good old days, as seen on picturesheffield.com - BTW, great site, thanks" but I think that it's not the way (at least in topic of behaviour of people) - "problem people" you mentioned seem to live here for a long time (and I'm not saying about the "new EU people"). They won't leave. Too many of them won't change. But still - I can say that "I've been around the world", I've visited most of european countries, also others - such as USA, so I have some comparison. And in most cities there is some kind of municipal police or at least regular police just walking through the city, patrolling it and sometimes giving you a ticket if behave wrong. Here - I only see police in cars speeding from point A to point B and noone seem to care what's going on between those points.

[cgksheff]

I see similarities between Sheffield and my city. And hope that both will be all right.

 

....

 

Where is "your city"?