Why do people litter in NYC?! (Rome, Amsterdam: neighborhood, live in, rated)

[BearMM]

Originally Posted by Photography

I hate this pathetic excuse that native NYers always throw around as if it's some sort of pass to excuse the filth that is NY (this is the same phrase that is also used to describe high rents, filthy streets, rude people, dirty subways, etc). Truth of the matter is, lots of NYers don't care about the environment in which they live, which reflects badly upon the city, and makes it look like the dump that it is.

You understand that high rents usually mean cleaner streets and polite people, don't you? That is one of the reasons they are high in the first place.

Back to the original topic:
I've never felt a lack of trashcans in Manhattan, but more budget for street cleaning/sweeping would surely help. You cannot change people just by shaming them. On the other hand, if the city starts a program to make streets cleaner, even without fines for littering, people will follow.

[Photography]

Originally Posted by BearMM

You understand that high rents usually mean cleaner streets and polite people, don't you? That is one of the reasons they are high in the first place.

No, it has absolutely no correlation when dealing specifically with NYC, given that the rents ARE high here, and the city is FILTHY. NYers in general are careless lazy pigs who don't care about their environment, and it shows.

[BearMM]

Originally Posted by Photography

No, it has absolutely no correlation when dealing specifically with NYC, given that the rents ARE high here, and the city is FILTHY. NYers in general are careless lazy pigs who don't care about their environment, and it shows.

While rents are high in all of NYC, the difference between rents in the best and the worst of neighborhoods is probably around 2.5-3 times.

Some parts of the city are very clean, you know.

[wawaweewa]

Originally Posted by Photography

I hate this pathetic excuse that native NYers always throw around as if it's some sort of pass to excuse the filth that is NY (this is the same phrase that is also used to describe high rents, filthy streets, rude people, dirty subways, etc). Truth of the matter is, lots of NYers don't care about the environment in which they live, which reflects badly upon the city, and makes it look like the dump that it is.

It's not an excuse. It's an explanation that many mindless transplants and NY'ers can't comprehend.

NYC is heavily populated, it's an immigrant (usually from developing countries) town, and it's a city where the poor live next to the wealthy. Not to say that immigrants or the poor themselves are in any way dirty but their penchant for keeping public streets/spaces clean is virtually non existent. In the immigrants case it is simply a matter of culture/habit and the poor don't have much of an incentive to keep their public spaces clean.

Have you ever heard of tenements? lol If you think NYC is dirty now...

To be honest, I don't think NYC is even that dirty anymore. If someone wants Northern/central European type city cleanliness then they are more than free to move.

[italianuser]

Originally Posted by BearMM

While rents are high in all of NYC, the difference between rents in the best and the worst of neighborhoods is probably around 2.5-3 times.

Some parts of the city are very clean, you know.

I totally agree.
I will never get the negativity of several newyorkers.
Some parts of NYC are disgusting... other ones are clean.
I am always surprised by the cleanliness of Central Park and Riverside Park, for instance: and I was used to the shabbiness of Rome's parks.
The UWS, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, SoHo, Financial District and the UES are actually reasonably tidy... whereas Midtown West is quite a dump, but it is probably destinied to be gentrified as Midtown East.

[italianuser]

Originally Posted by wawaweewa

To be honest, I don't think NYC is even that dirty anymore. If someone wants Northern/central European type city cleanliness then they are more than free to move.

And even in that area there are dirty cities... Brussel, Amsterdam... also french cities are plagued by the unbelievable amount of dog excrements... it is actually worse than litter

[Photography]

Originally Posted by wawaweewa

It's not an excuse. It's an explanation that many mindless transplants and NY'ers can't comprehend.

NYC is heavily populated, it's an immigrant (usually from developing countries) town, and it's a city where the poor live next to the wealthy. Not to say that immigrants or the poor themselves are in any way dirty but their penchant for keeping public streets/spaces clean is virtually non existent. In the immigrants case it is simply a matter of culture/habit and the poor don't have much of an incentive to keep their public spaces clean.

Have you ever heard of tenements? lol If you think NYC is dirty now...

To be honest, I don't think NYC is even that dirty anymore. If someone wants Northern/central European type city cleanliness then they are more than free to move.

No, it IS an excuse, and a pathetic one at that. There are many cities as populous or more populous than NY that are much cleaner than NY. It's because the citizens actually care enough to take care of where they live instead of leaving it disgustingly filthy like NYers do. For example, in Tokyo, which is roughly 4 times the size of NY, they take care to keep their city very clean (much cleaner than NY), which is because their citizens are actually respectful of others and their environment.

Again, take off the pink glasses.

[Doobage]

Originally Posted by Photography

No, it IS an excuse, and a pathetic one at that. There are many cities as populous or more populous than NY that are much cleaner than NY. It's because the citizens actually care enough to take care of where they live instead of leaving it disgustingly filthy like NYers do. For example, in Tokyo, which is roughly 4 times the size of NY, they take care to keep their city very clean (much cleaner than NY), which is because their citizens are actually respectful of others and their environment.

Again, take off the pink glasses.

Seoul is also a shockingly clean city. When I was there I was surprised at the lack of trash cans and the lack of litter. People just kept their litter on their persons until they got home to throw it away.

[Pruzhany]

They PAY people clean up it and the ones being paid actually CLEAN.

No they don't pay people to clean the sidewalks. They fine store owners every morning to force them to clean up someone elses garbage. Ask any store owner what their every morning ritual is before they can actually open for business.

[LookinForMayberry]

Originally Posted by New2012York

New York City is dirty in some parts of the city. Why do people litter on the streets, grass etc.? If everybody threw out their junk on garbage cans, maybe the city would have been very clean. It's sad that the greatest and most famous city in the World is dirty :/

Many visitors from particularly Europe find NYC dirty. How do other large cities keep their city clean?

Cut NYC from your question, because litter is EVERYWHERE in the US. We traveled the country for two years and NEVER escaped it. As long as there are people, there is litter. It's a lack of civic pride, IMO.

As one person told me (while I was commenting on litter): "People are Pigs!" (and then he tosses an empty can on top of the rest....

When we lived in North Seattle, I was always cleaning peoples trash out of my yard. We used to have juniper shrubs along our sidewalk, and I pulled them out because it was too scratchy to pull the debris from their boughs.

Once, volunteering on a clean up crew in a section of Fremont (Seattle neighborhood), I collected trash out of a guy's yard as he sat on his butt watching, and drinking a beer. After I finished and had started walking away with my bag, he calls out "Thanks." As I turned to nod in his direction, I saw he'd thrown his bottle in the middle of where I'd just picked up.