[Lincolnian]

I just returned from visiting CA. After all the "green laws" CA has enacted over the years you'd think that people there would actually respect their environment, err....no!

It had been 20 years since I last visited the San Diego and LA areas. I was completely appalled by the vast quantity of roadside garbage. It was everywhere. I stayed for 5 days in La Jolla, supposedly recently rated America's top community, and it was plastered with garbage. The pedestrian walkways had their perimeter filled with garbage knee high in some areas.

It's not like the road crews are slacking either. I watched as an extensive road crew filled dozens of bags with garbage from a small area. The very next day the area was trashed again.

By comparison even the dirtiest areas of Connecticut are generally in better shape than many areas of California.

No green law is going to change the behavior of people who act in an uncivilized manner. I'm sure their barbaric behavior permeates other areas of their societal interactions. Many areas of CA have regulations for everything including using your back porch light after dark????

It is a disturbing irony that a state that is celebrated for it's liberal attitudes has to rely on volumes of state and local laws and ordinances to control "undesirable" behavior of people who show little respect for others or their environment by acting in an uncivilized manner.

As I left Bradley airport and looked at the beautiful roadsides on my return to my home in CT I was reminded of just another reason why I have chosen to remain a resident of the northeast.

[MikefromCT]

I'm not entirely surprised that in some places garbage was piling up, this likely the result of cuts thanks to the state's financial crisis. But I'm REALLY surprised to hear that La Jolla was described as you put it - because I've been there several times in the past few years and when I was there it was immaculate. Of course, that was before they were $30 billion in the red.

As far as having ordinances to when to use porch lights, this isn't entirely surprising. The past 2 times I've been to Cali to see friends and family members, I was told that they've encouraged people to avoid using washers and dryers until evening - reason being is since more people use air conditioning during the day they're using more power - and in more populated areas like SoCal it's not uncommon to have blackouts. In fact, first time I went to see family in the SF Valley in '06 there was a blackout in the middle of the afternoon. It happens all the time, they told me. So the energy saving measures are partially about saving energy, but also about preventing blackouts.

[Cooler_King]

Lincolnian, do you remember what streets or area of La Jolla you had seen trash piled up? I've never seen trash as you describe in La Jolla. Being a recent(4 months) San Diego translpant to CT, I see far more trash on the sidewalks/streets in areas of Hartford & New Haven(included areas near New Haven such as Milford & Derby). However, the are areas of CT that are immaculate... Simsbury, Avon, & Farmington come to mind.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Cooler_King

Lincolnian, do you remember what streets or area of La Jolla you had seen trash piled up? I've never seen trash as you describe in La Jolla. Being a recent(4 months) San Diego translpant to CT, I see far more trash on the sidewalks/streets in areas of Hartford & New Haven(included areas near New Haven such as Milford & Derby). However, the are areas of CT that are immaculate... Simsbury, Avon, & Farmington come to mind.

I know we're talking about different areas of CA here, but in the western LA metro, garbage is everywhere, from sidewalks to highways. I just moved here from CT and am disgusted at the lack of respect for the land. I miss how clean CT is, and how most residents of CT take good care of their surroundings. I just don't see that in LA.

Derby is an ugly town, I'll give you that. Milford is too, IMO. But trash? Never saw that on their roadways. Even 95 is pretty clean.

In La Jolla, I do agree with others that I have never seen "piles" of trash. Could it have been trash pick-up?