For the past couple of years, I have "adopted" the strips of abandoned land between curb and sidewalk at the corner of 29th and Poplar...north, east, and south. It was an intersection that had become dangerous, made additionally so by the arrival of some new neighbors with small children. Not wanting me, my neighbors, visiting friends, or strangers to suffer vehicular accidents...or even worse, to be the accidental cause of an obscured child being injured or killed and having to carry that on one's conscience for the rest of one's life...well, it was the least I could do.

I bought a new lawnmower two years ago...and proceeded to tear that sucker up, cutting the refuse that accumulates in abandoned lots like metal to a magnet...liquor bottles, beer cans and bottles, bricks, stones, branches and chunks of wood, actual pieces of metal...whatever. I did this without regret, figuring if the mower would last a year...fine, that it was money and time well spent.

And, my luck held. My new mower lasted a year, ironically "dying" at the end of the season when I hit the corner of a landscaping timber that had resided in my own yard for literally a quarter of century while mulching those autumn leaves!

So, went out and bought a new, "identical twin" to my previous mower and am currently happily chomping away at a new accumulation of bottles, bricks, and assorted debris.

However, I do have a complaint...

I spent last weekend cutting and removing fallen limbs from the vacant lot that adjoins my "adopted" no-man-land strips between curb and sidewalk. I stacked them neatly on an abandoned concrete driveway on the property so as not to block the street and so as to keep weeds from growing and taking over the pile. Hopefully, the city workers will haul them off soon. (Contrary to comments I have read and heard, I have had good luck with receiving the services of the city workers, who usually remove my debris within the week...sometimes before I even complete my project. THANK YOU!)

However...

I did read one "Cairo City Council Report" that causes me concern...something about the city NOT picking up trash and debris deposited by neighbors (or passers-by) at properties that have no meter...the absentee owners (if any) obviously NOT paying for city services. (My newly "adopted lot"...no house, so, obviously no meter.)

If the city wants "volunteers" to clean up abandoned properties in Cairo, then the word needs go out...whoever is in charge of picking up trash and debris needs to pick it up and haul it off...regardless of where it is located. Do NOT expect the volunteers to haul it off! I'm NOT going to drag those tree limbs down the block to my house...hoping that the city workers will continue to favor me with their services. In fact, that effort would most assuredly wear out my welcome!

Plus, I may be willing to sacrifice the life of my lawnmower, but I'm NOT going to inflict additional wear and tear on my aging body. (Some kindly lady stopped by and chatted with me last weekend...wondering what I was doing and why I was doing it. Her parting comment..."Well, don't have a heart attack!" Message received...and appreciated.)

Trash is trash...no matter where it ends up.

If we are interested in "Beautifying Cairo", let's not start laying out boundaries. I didn't worry about the boundary when I adopted part of my neighborhood. Mr. Mayor doesn't cite boundaries in his "Letter from the Mayor's Desk".

I have one other request...

We could use a little help out here!

Some of that help will have to be active, to cure past wrongs. Much of that help, however, could be passive...as in cease and desist in the practices that created some of Cairo's eyesores.

The "active help" to which I refer is the clean-up of eyesores CREATED BY THE CITY...AND/OR ITS VENDORS!

In his letter, Mr. Mayor (rightfully) cited the efforts of Charles McGinness in the 400 Block of 28th Street. Well, Charles also spends time in the 400 Block of 29th Street...the same general area to which I devote my efforts.

I work the other side of the street...

As I indicated above, I removed much of the damage caused by "Ice Storm 2009" and cut the weeds that had grown up around the fallen timber.

However, my efforts are now stalled...by concrete slabs and such. This obstacle is the result of the Illinois-American Water Company ripping up my street to install/fix new pipes. Instead of hauling the street debris away, they took the easy way out...carting it a half of a block and dumping it in the aforementioned abandoned lot. This proved to be NOT a temporary convenience. It has been sitting there, used, and added to since the Spring of 2008!

So...

Yes, I will happily spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a new lawnmower (and donate whatever hours it takes to do the cutting), but I ain't gonna go out and rent a bulldozer to remove the city-imposed construction debris from the lot. (Also, I wouldn't know where to dump it if I did...and would probably have a ticket for illegal dumping added to my "volunteer efforts".)

And...

Although I actually did resort to shovel and wheelbarrow to remove a small pile of debris the middle of the lot (adding it to the large pile), ain't no way that I'm going to tackle the tons of other debris!

NOPE!

I'm going to listen to the sage wisdom and advice of a friendly passer-by...