How did the Bay Area become so "trashy" in the last five years? (Los Angeles: 2013, low crime)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by Perma Bear

How come the price of housing is still going up?

Because geeks still make too much money, and those jobs keep opening up.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

Thats not very accurate there are plenty of Bay Area sidewalks that are in neighborhoods where there are barely any pedestrian traffic yet has many trash either illegally dumped by residents or more often flown off trash or construction trucks. I notice quite an increase in garbage on the streets in the days following the neighborhood's trash collection day. This does not always correspond to the number of homeless people in the area. Even though homeless people do produce more garbage.



It appears the contrast occurred between city to city was not as stark as in the recent years.


According to Google Street View images the freeway and the streets in the city the freeway runs through was not as bad in the years between 2007 and 2011 and there are multiple images a year. Therefore one cannot just blame whether a picture is taken before a storm or a cleanup and the other afterwards.

Yes Caltrans cleans 101 just like they clean up any other state route in the state.

I would wonder why would Caltrans clean the freeways beside certain communities better and not others. Though I am pretty certain the stretches of state routes across the trashy areas are cleaned with the same scheduled frequency as state routes anywhere else. Though Caltrans somehow cannot keep up with sharp increase in litter spilled from local cities such as San Jose and many other Bay Area cities unless they greatly increase manpower or funding for more cleaning. I went to Sacramento quite a few times in the past few years and I was surprised to see all the state routes and freeways virtually litter free a large contrast to what I see in the Bay Area on the way there. It appears the majority of the garbage on the highways are too big to come out of a car window therefore it appears to be released from large construction trucks and garbage trucks.



Though areas with trashed highways often have even more trashed streets within the city. Willow is a city street in Menlo Park while 84 is a state highway but both are similarly littered as with 101 and El Camino Real and intersecting streets in much of the Peninsula. Though one exception to this rule is Milpitas in SC county where once within its juristication there is barely any litter but once outside it i.e San Jose, freeways, etc lots and lots of litter. Though it appears San Jose stopped cleaning up some of its neighborhoods completely and city contracted trucks often spill tons trash while its passing by city streets as well as the freeway. I doubt caltrans clean the freeways more or less in the Bay Area compared to Sacramento or LA, Orange, and San Diego county its just that the Bay Area produce too much spilled trash for their cleaning crews to keep up without increasing manpower or budget.

Beware of what the one sided often liberal bias media tells you. They often brainwash people into something which really isn't. There are articles that reveal more truthful and unfortunately rather ugly reality.
Environmental group to sue San Jose for sewage spills and trash pollution - San Jose Mercury News,
https://baykeeper.org/blog/baykeeper...-pollution-bay

The city and the media will continuously use false promises to get citizens to pay more to seemingly give better services which really isn't the case. They would often spend it on projects that would prove to be a waste of money that don't . I been scammed by so many tax and fee measures in SJ I stopped voting for them altogether.

All those VTA light rail lines to places with very low population density and were people would loathe to ride it just takes money away from where its needed. VTA permanently cut many bus lines that happens to be the lifeline to many car less low income communities to fund these lightly used rail lines to nowhere. If VTA really wants to make a difference they should had built a rail\ line between Santana Row, Diridon Station, downtown San Jose santa clara street(build it like SF's market street subway with the new BART line, down McLaughlin or 101 median where there are many high density housing, and Tully Road toward Eastridge transit center which is one of the three busiest transit centers in the valley. Though now they want to build it down Capital Expressway towards capital station. No sane commuter would ride a rail line like that.
There are many many other issues that would take too much typing if I was to explain it all therefore I am not going to mention them on this forum.

So this thread is just a right-wing rant? How nouveau.

Of the trash in SJ: Less people picking it up, lots more homeless being chased around to places they weren't before, making little trash dumps everywhere.

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

I used to ride the lightrail everyday. I'm pretty sane

San Jose is a low-density city, any light rail built here will inherently go through low-density population. We'll just have to start packing up the density around the stations. I agree with a rail line between the Row and Diridon, and a rail line to Eastridge would be great as well. Oh well....

But the light rail works great if you're on a north-south commute. East-west, not so much.

You are right some light rail lines do work. I was fascinated with the system when I moved here and anticipated it would expand to be more useful. Though while some expansion projects were smart I.e the Campbell Winchester line which runs through a relatively dense area of the valley including the San Jose Diridon Station. Though what really I don't like is their other extensions i.e the eastside extension Capital Avenue toward Alum Rock and eventually down Capital expressway until it terminates on Capital station. This seems to be equivalent to building a lightrail line to nowhere as not many would go a wide circle in the opposite way their going. There is not going to be much ridership on that section capital ave/expressway has very few high capacity housing projects. They might as well had a rapid bus line on Capital Avenue instead and built a light rail corridor. And extended lightrail from Mountain View to Palo Alto instead where there are so many walkable communities.

Though what VTA should really had done is to improve the downtown stretch of the oldest Guadalupe line which is now a major discouragement for many would be riders living on the corridor south of downtown commuting to the golden triangle. The express light rail is a stupid idea as it just speeds light rail slightly in an already fast corridor towards the slow corridor which still remains sluggish well into north San Jose. They should had worked with BART to make a market street subway for both a new east west line and an improved Guadalupe line. If ballot measures are used in this manner I would certainly vote for more. Though alas the reality is its not used well therefore I no longer vote for VTA ballot measures.

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

So this thread is just a right-wing rant? How nouveau.

Of the trash in SJ: Less people picking it up, lots more homeless being chased around to places they weren't before, making little trash dumps everywhere.

Sorry about the liberal reference. In reality, Left or right is same as asking pick your poison. As the common people are ignored by the media and only they(the vocal far left and far right) shine. Though in the Bay Area's major media sources generally favor far left and trample views contradicting them(not necessarily from right wing groups). Though the far right is no better. Both struggle to unnecessarily control the masses against their will just in different ways. Both lefty and righty groups should both back off some on their endless propagenda and give citizens room to live their lives and their voices heard.

I would wonder why less people would be picking it up the last three years compared to years in the past? 2010 was the peak of the city's financial woes yet the city's street litter issue did not change much unlike post 2012.

I am sure anyone regardless of their political stance have the right to be concerned about their neighborhoods turning into a garbage dump and would not just happily live with it.

Originally Posted by Perma Bear

How come the price of housing is still going up?

The global housing market keeps pushing up as investors worldwide particularly from China continues to buy housing in large batches in different parts of the world. They will invest whereever and whenever the market is hot and well known to them. Though this trend appears to have peaked in 2015 and is now leveling off as China and Greece is suffering economic troubles a domino effect of a bear market may proceed the following years. Interestingly I noticed the housing market tend to peak every seven years the past three decades i.e 1993, 2000, 2007, 2015 with a downward spiral for about 3 years after peaking followed by four years of rise. I bet this trend would continue to repeat itself in years to come.

[phantompilot]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

There's a new sales tax from San Jose on the next ballot. I'm voting for it. We need more money to do cleanup and provide for public safety, and I'm willing to do it.

Willing to check a box so that a million other people have to pay more money when they buy things? How big of you.

For a moment I thought you were willing to go pick up the trash yourself. Now that would be something to brag about.

[Royal1999]

Silicon Valley is booming, but the state is broke. I don't see it being all that complicated, but I haven't lived in Cali for many years.

[artillery77]

The trash problem is ridiculous.

1. Cheap Construction Crews - Demo work is done on some small project and they don't know where to dump it. We've busted a couple people filling our work compactor, and there's been others just leaving it by the side of the road.

2. Cheap Construction Crews 2/Junkers - You see those jalopies driving down the freeway doing 45 blocking traffic. Loads are tied down with a thread as if preserving some sort of near end game jenga tournament? Yeah, that stuff falls.

3. People that change their oil - I've been trying to catch the douchebag in our neighborhood that keeps leaving filled containers of oil on the side of the road. They're going to kill a kid at some point.

4. Room renting IKEA customer from 1994 - So you finally decided to part with your broken desk, but its too big for your trash bin....so you put it on the road...donating it to anyone who wants it.

5. Homeless/Trash sorters - Most people that drive through to pick the recycle bins before the trash guys get it are decent about not making a mess, but not all. The city's dislocation of the main homeless encampment has spread it all over.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Plus, a Bay Area quirk.

It seems that, in general, people hate the idea of having a decent number of public trash cans. If you have to walk 4 - 5 blocks (or more) to throw something away properly, guess what happens?

[Heidi60]

Originally Posted by artillery77

The trash problem is ridiculous.

1. Cheap Construction Crews - Demo work is done on some small project and they don't know where to dump it. We've busted a couple people filling our work compactor, and there's been others just leaving it by the side of the road.

2. Cheap Construction Crews 2/Junkers - You see those jalopies driving down the freeway doing 45 blocking traffic. Loads are tied down with a thread as if preserving some sort of near end game jenga tournament? Yeah, that stuff falls.

3. People that change their oil - I've been trying to catch the douchebag in our neighborhood that keeps leaving filled containers of oil on the side of the road. They're going to kill a kid at some point.

4. Room renting IKEA customer from 1994 - So you finally decided to part with your broken desk, but its too big for your trash bin....so you put it on the road...donating it to anyone who wants it.

5. Homeless/Trash sorters - Most people that drive through to pick the recycle bins before the trash guys get it are decent about not making a mess, but not all. The city's dislocation of the main homeless encampment has spread it all over.

I totally agree! I noticed that also. Sadly, I don't think the general San Jose population really notices or cares as the quality of life seems to have changed over the past 10-20 years.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by Royal1999

Silicon Valley is booming, but the state is broke. I don't see it being all that complicated, but I haven't lived in Cali for many years.

Actually, the state isn't broke anymore. Since you haven't been in "Cali" for many years, apparently you weren't aware of this.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by phantompilot

Willing to check a box so that a million other people have to pay more money when they buy things? How big of you.

For a moment I thought you were willing to go pick up the trash yourself. Now that would be something to brag about.

Nope, aint got time to pick up the trash. I'm too busy working so I can buy more stuffs and contribute my sales tax to helping the homeless housing and low-income people

I know, I know, so charitable of me. But I aint' gonna brag