Trash talkin'
A few stories from Maudy reinforced a criticism of Rome that i've previously expressed.
I've walked around town at around 3-4am and have seen the street sweepers cleaning up the daily mess. I've also walked around town at around 7-9am and have seen how efficient Romans are at dirtying their city: by the time 9am rolls around the streets are again a mess, littered with pizza napkins and daily newspapers and morning dog poop. They don't throw their napkins into the trash cans, they leave their newspapers on the benches so the rain and wind can spread them around the streets, and they don't care for cleaning after their dogs.
Another aspect of messiness that i alluded to before is the broken sidewalks; i can understand that coblestone roads are difficult to keep even but the sidewalks in Rome are also broken and in disrepair (in all parts of the city, from EUR to downtown to up north). In Ann Arbor we have very harsh conditions: the temperature ranges from -20 to 90 degrees farenheit and many streets are lined with trees, yet the sidewalks are in quite good condition by comparison.
The stories:
Every time he cleans up after his dog (a little dog named Rocco, i forget the exact breed), people look at him funny and say che schifo, how dirty, as if cleaning up after the dog is dirtier and nastier than leaving dog crap on the sidewalk. When he was working in a bar, this guy buys a bag of chips, finishes them, then throws the bag on the ground instead of into the trash. Maudy tells the guy, "hey put that in the trash", but the guy just looks at him and says, "what's your problem", as if Maudy has just insulted him.
There is a high wall that runs from the castel to the VC, it used to also be used as an escape route for the Pope so he could hole up in the castle during war times. A couple years ago this famous structure was open to the public, with a coffee shop and little bar at the top (by the way, a bar in Italy isn't a sit down get drunk kinda place, but implies an actual bar across which one might order a coffee or a sandwich, and perhaps a beer or shot of grappa, but not necessarily a place to get drunk), and the ability to sit down or walk around the passage way at the top. Eventually, though, this had to be closed as visitors were constantly throwing their trash off the side of the walls and into the neighbouring resident's back yards and balconies.
What's with the lack of social responsibility, both in terms of not cleaning up after themselves and in terms of not caring if their streets and sidewalks are in a good state of repair? Are they simply content with one large urban renewal plan every 500 years?
I've walked around town at around 3-4am and have seen the street sweepers cleaning up the daily mess. I've also walked around town at around 7-9am and have seen how efficient Romans are at dirtying their city: by the time 9am rolls around the streets are again a mess, littered with pizza napkins and daily newspapers and morning dog poop. They don't throw their napkins into the trash cans, they leave their newspapers on the benches so the rain and wind can spread them around the streets, and they don't care for cleaning after their dogs.
Another aspect of messiness that i alluded to before is the broken sidewalks; i can understand that coblestone roads are difficult to keep even but the sidewalks in Rome are also broken and in disrepair (in all parts of the city, from EUR to downtown to up north). In Ann Arbor we have very harsh conditions: the temperature ranges from -20 to 90 degrees farenheit and many streets are lined with trees, yet the sidewalks are in quite good condition by comparison.
The stories:
Every time he cleans up after his dog (a little dog named Rocco, i forget the exact breed), people look at him funny and say che schifo, how dirty, as if cleaning up after the dog is dirtier and nastier than leaving dog crap on the sidewalk. When he was working in a bar, this guy buys a bag of chips, finishes them, then throws the bag on the ground instead of into the trash. Maudy tells the guy, "hey put that in the trash", but the guy just looks at him and says, "what's your problem", as if Maudy has just insulted him.
There is a high wall that runs from the castel to the VC, it used to also be used as an escape route for the Pope so he could hole up in the castle during war times. A couple years ago this famous structure was open to the public, with a coffee shop and little bar at the top (by the way, a bar in Italy isn't a sit down get drunk kinda place, but implies an actual bar across which one might order a coffee or a sandwich, and perhaps a beer or shot of grappa, but not necessarily a place to get drunk), and the ability to sit down or walk around the passage way at the top. Eventually, though, this had to be closed as visitors were constantly throwing their trash off the side of the walls and into the neighbouring resident's back yards and balconies.
What's with the lack of social responsibility, both in terms of not cleaning up after themselves and in terms of not caring if their streets and sidewalks are in a good state of repair? Are they simply content with one large urban renewal plan every 500 years?
posted by francisco at 11/26/2004 07:21:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home