Leaving the house this morning to walk my dog in my Columbia Heights neighborhood I find this door-hanger flyer lying on my front steps, near the sidewalk. In case you can't read this, it says:"The Mayor's Conservation Corps -- We're here to help clean and green your neighborhood! "
Apparently their first act of conservation was to conserve the energy it would have taken to walk all the way up to my door to actually hang the flyer. Clearly they set a good example for the Pizza Mart guy who, impressed with their energy saving maneuver, saved his own energy and placed his flyer thoughtfully on top of Conservation one.
And it wasn't that my stairs are overly steep. I found the Conservation Corps "We're here to green your neighborhood" flyer on the sidewalk, in a neighbor's fenced-in yard, on other front stair steps and the street gutter. I guess when they said they would "green" the neighborhood what they meant was littering it with green flyers.
Hopefully their second act will be to walk back through the neighborhood and pick them up.
And while we're on the subject of conservation -- perhaps the cash-strapped District could have conserved a few dollars and not printed the green
16 comments:
I actually just saw the same thing in Shaw. 30 kids wandering around putting flyers all over the place.
It's all part of the plan to revitalize the economy. Think of all the people being put to work distributing the flyers and then cleaning them up! Then they can get some of their money back by recycling them! Your blog title pretty much sums it up.
Scott –
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Unfortunately, we’ve had several complaints about youth not properly hanging the door hangers. MCC youth have been instructed to go back through their neighborhoods today and remove any door hangers found on the street and sidewalk. I apologize for the inconvenience.
As a District resident (and neighbor), I can assure you this was not the impression we intended to leave. We hope that we can work closely with you and other community members to clean-up our neighborhoods.
Should you have any questions about the program or find that the youth did not clean up this mess, please do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 596-4641.
Thank you.
Melissa McKnight
Mayor’s Conservation Corps
"Unfortunately, we’ve had several complaints about youth not properly hanging the door hangers. MCC youth have been instructed to go back through their neighborhoods today and remove any door hangers found on the street and sidewalk. I apologize for the inconvenience."
Wow, way to miss the point.
How are you greening a neighborhood with FLIERS made of PAPER?
Sheesh.
I noticed these too, especially on Irving Street. Completely ridiculous!
In other news, let's exchange links, I write the New Columbia Heights blog.
I noticed this also on the other houses on my block but not mine. I guess mine is already "green" or not worth conserving. Hmm.
The kids papering our doors are all wearing matching blue T-shirts with Mayor Fenty's name on them. That conserves the Mayor's campaign funds.
..and quite possibly the 3rd rudest youngsters en masse I've ever encountered on a sidewalk.
I was walking on Kalorama towards 16th and noticed car after car with those door hanger flyers on the windshields. More than a few even had 2 flyers.
You couldnt write better irony.
Does anyone know if they used recycled paper for these door hangers? There's no statement to that effect. Perfect! DC at its finest!
They were all over Shaw as well. It sounds like some environmental education is in order here. Calling Woodsy Owl: "Help Keep America Looking Good," and "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" and that crying native american guy.
When is the last time you've seen an anti-litter PSA? These kids have no idea what they were doing was wrong.
@jimbo - "that crying native american guy" was Iron Eyes Cody. Seems a shame to mention Woodsy Owl by name and leave off the name of the real person.
First, I think Ms. Mcknight is to be commended for her fast response, despite the irony of the Fenty Admin doing exactly what the headline of this blog post says they were doing. However, I appreciate her fast response to an obscure blog less than an hour after the post was made.
I think Jimbo nails it -- these kids don't think littering is bad. Most of the street litter in my neighborhood comes from 1) non-taxpayer funded flyers like the ones the District was passing out. And 2) Kids. I live a block from a high school and when school is in there is a very discernable uptick in street trash.
The crying Indian was iconic and I'll bet you everyone of my generation remembers him.
Sounds like a ridiculous summer job program that will actually produce no tangible benefit for the city. Sadly, I am the taxpayer paying for this crap. If I wouldn't go to jail for not paying my taxes, I would say screw the district. Its not like the money goes for anything needed.
Summer jobs programs produce no tangible benefit for the city? How about city youth, in the best case scenario, gaining experience in work environments, getting some self-respect, earning a badly-needed paycheck, keeping busy and out of trouble... What's sad is when there AREN'T summer jobs programs.
Im working on the renovation project at Eastern High School, and on Thursday, June 25th, the MCC came through the area. They had trash bags, grabbers, etc, but I never witnessed any of them actually picking trash. There didnt appear to be any supervision, or work going on at all. However, they did manage to throw some football around, lounge against some personal vehicles that didn't belong to them, help themselves to all of the water from a construction crew's cooler, and leave with about a dozen Gatorade water bottles that they had acquired from the field supply room. I can only imagine that the adjacent area was graced with the empty bottles when they were finished with them.
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