How about making Sheffield a better place?

[identyfik]

Where is "your city"?

 

Well, that probably won't tell you much, but my city is sometimes called "Polish Manchester", but it seems pretty similar to Sheffield as well. Here's my city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA

[Longy67]

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.

 

TBH, most areas are litter strewn, i was only saying the other day around Hillsborough how much litter was about, why can't people just wait till they are near a bin or home to dispose of their rubbish??? Bu we were in Bakewell this week, and what a lovely place, nice and clean and people, even visitors, took pride in the place..

[Humnanby]

TBH, most areas are litter strewn, i was only saying the other day around Hillsborough how much litter was about, why can't people just wait till they are near a bin or home to dispose of their rubbish??? Bu we were in Bakewell this week, and what a lovely place, nice and clean and people, even visitors, took pride in the place..

 

Put a bin up it's either not emptied, kicked over, or set fire to, build a public toilet how long before it's vandalised, plant saplings how long before they are broken down, benches and fences usually broken pretty quickly . As a previous poster said "it's the people" and we can't fix them now, it's all sadly gone too far - beyond repair.

Edited July 30, 2016 by Humnanby

[Daven]

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.

 

Years ago Sheffield had more rubbish on the streets, effluent flowing in our rivers and the air was so polluted your hanky was black when you blew your nose.

People have very short memories and I doubt any city or town in Poland was any better - probably far worse.

[identyfik]

Years ago Sheffield had more rubbish on the streets, effluent flowing in our rivers and the air was so polluted your hanky was black when you blew your nose.

People have very short memories and I doubt any city or town in Poland was any better - probably far worse.

 

Well - if that would be true - do you think that I would have observations I wrote above? Seriously, it's not about "my city is better than yours", we're not kids anymore) so lets talk and act adult. And as I mentioned - I've seen a lot of cities around the world - some were beautiful (ie. I love Geneve), some pretty awful (such as Brussels). Also within UK there are more beautiful ones and those... let's say less fortunate. Same in Poland. Same in every other country. And saying "city X is more beautiful than any city in country Y"... well... let's just say that it doesn't sound justified.

 

Still - try to remember that I didn't said "what a terrible city", but "what a nice city, what can we do to make it better?" and we should keep this direction. At least - it seems more productive in my opinion. Don't you agree?

Edited July 30, 2016 by identyfik

[tinfoilhat]

There are, according to papers today, billions less plastic carrier bags about which is a good thing.

 

But, people are scum. How often have you driven down a road and found a bag of McDonald's rubbish bouncing along the carriageway - it doesn't even need to near a macdonalds! I'm lucky where I work, an industrial estate (which are normally the grimiest places on gods earth) is spotless and it's only spotless because a community group of young disabled kids comes down once a week (or a fortnight) and cleans up bags of rubbish, probably for free and it's probably not the only patch they do.

 

We should all be ashamed.

[crookedspire]

I have known Sheffield since I was young child as my parents regularly visited it for shopping in fact some of my family still live their. Yes Sheffield has changed some of this change has been positive like the redevelopments like the Peace Gardens look better than before parts of the city also changed for the better granted some areas do need more to improve but remember all cities are a work in progress. A lot you read about Sheffield is also happening in other cities too I'm sure people in Manchester moan about similar things that people in Sheffield moan about. With regards to rubblish the city council have had to make deep cuts as central government have cut their money so services have been effected. Yes I agree things could better but let's not pull it down either.

[identyfik]

Plastic bags tinfoilhat mentioned sure is an issue. Looking from PL perspective situation got a bit better when a law was introduced that there can be no free plastic bags in stores - but I think I saw something like that written somewhere in ASDA. But there can be more - for example in Croatia and in Germany you had to pay for every plastic bottle when you bought a soda. Then you could put the empty bottle back to a machine and got your cash back. Result - almost NO plastic bottles on roads, even if you throw one on the street - someone will gladly pick it up and throw it into a machine. And get back 50 cents or something.

 

crookedspire - I'm sure that that's the problem of other cities as well. But it's hard to change the world. Let's start with something smaller. The city. Or a street. I understand that there were some financial cuts but really, if you could hire single a man that would take care of the rubbish on just a few streets - it's not really that much work - and people will see the difference - mayby that would influance a few of them. Tinfoilhat mantioned disabled kids - great idea, cleaner street + they will feel needed. But still it's not their job to clean the city.

 

There's a Clean Up The World initiative http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/en/ - quite popular in many countries, where once per year people are just picking up rubbish from their towns, their cities, their river, forests and fields. It's only once per year - but it's results can really be seen. Is something like that organised in Sheffield as well?

[crookedspire]

This problem with litter and fly tripping got worse due to various issues I doubt a now and again litter pick will do much people will be interested to start with then it drops off. It has become a no win situation its not just in the cities its the same in towns and villages and motorways on the grass verges are clogged full with rubbish.

[identyfik]

Yeah, you're right, let's give up. Or not

A "now and again litter pick" will not fix everything. But it could have impact on at least two issues:

1. Preventing "critical mass of rubbish". I've just invented this term What I mean is: the street doesn't have t be perfectly clean. But if at least we could make action when there's an "aceptable" level of litter which won't make people think "it's terrible here, so I will throw my trash on a sidewalk too" - this could change something. Let's not clean the street 5 times a day. But I see streets where it's getting worse for 2 weeks now...

2. Going back to "Clean Up The World" again. In Poland it's done on many ways. One of them is - school classes attend it as well. Pupils are cleaning their neighbourhood. There are some contests too, but that's not most important. What matters (in my opinion) is to change the way people think. People don't wan't to clean trash, especially if it's not their trash. That's natural - i know a lot of better ways to spend time that picking up trash. So thought probably most of the children taking part in this initiative. But suddenly - hey, Paul and Jenny are picking up trash, it's not something someone should be ashamed of, I'll join and we could pick it together. It connects them. And suddenly becomes quite normal for some of them. Not for all, but hey, small steps...

Edited July 30, 2016 by identyfik