I wish you could experience the pollution of Friday and Saturday nights in my neighborhood: sound pollution and litter in particular.
If I go out the following morning before the street cleaners do their work, at taxpayer expense, there is garbage all over. Pizza boxes, beer cans, plastic cups, sometimes bar glasses but they’ve mostly been replaced by plastic, doof wrappers, often pieces of clothing, takeout containers often with food in it, and plenty more.
It’s on the street, the gutter, the planters outside my building, in the trees, overflowing from garbage cans.
At night they honk, rev their engines, yell at each other, sing, and so on.
None are from this neighborhood. They are from other places—New Jersey, Long Island, upstate, as well as tourists from farther.
This neighborhood is lovely most of the rest of the time. The taxpayer expense to clean up the mess comes to us, the residents, despite their causing the problem.
People live outside the city for quiet, but we who live here aren’t making the noise. They are.
