I'll try this again in Rocklin, CA

I haven't posted here in years, but when the subject came up in a local neighbor social media site, I decided to go back and see if I could find the old blog. Happy to see it is still here.

If everyone who walks for exercise in Rocklin, chose one day a week to walk "where the trash is" with a trash grabbler and a garbage bag... Our city would be a nicer place to live and we'd all own a piece of that achievement.

Let's go Rocklin!

Check out these fun guys I met on my clean up tour this morning... At least something enjoyed the wet weather.  They sure aren't around like this the rest of the year.

Meeting with Mayor Leckness

Met with Dave Leckness this a.m. to discuss the bag attitude idea.  He likes it a lot and suggested that I come up with a graphic or logo and then we could schedule a meeting with Waste Management, Inc reps. and pose the idea to them to get some financial backing.  I'm working on it Dave :)

Web App

Another idea:

What if there was a web app that would allow me to go online to "adopt" a particular route?  This adoption would serve to identify that route as "picked up" and would be visible to other app users to avoid redundant effort.  Also, this adoption would be timed to expire, say in 1 week, so that upon expiration, the adoption disappears. Thus the goal would be to keep all streets adopted and thus marked as recently picked up.

Now, imagine if you had a mobile phone app that would use GPS to track your exercise route like SportyPal does and imagine if that were tied into the web app.  That way, every time I go out, I just start the mobile app and it records my path, then I upload the path to the web app to record what was done.

I'd love to find someone who does web applications and get them to put together something like this.

Sporty Pal

I just found a great application for tracking my trash walk/runs. Its avaliable on Android, iPhone, Windows, Symbian/Java, RIM Blackberry at http://www.sportypal.com/ or you can also find it on the respective marketplace apps for the different devices.


This app is great because it uses GPS to track where you went, your distance, time elapsed, calories expended, average speed, etc. It is a free app and also has optional additional features w/ a subscription fee.   


I would love to get an app like this for a rolling adopt-a-street program.

Andrea's Liquors is a Local Source of Street Trash

If you see this, let the owner know you don't appreciate seeing his garbage blowing down Marguerite.


[Revised 12/14/10:]
After reporting the situation to city code enforcement and after my standoff with the owner, it appears that the situation has improved... At least to the extent that I am now willing to go by and pick up the few things that are there while on my regular exercise route. On days that are really bad, I will not do the work for them but I will post the pictures here and ask that the citizens share their disgust with the owner.

Catching Up To Do

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while, but it a lot has happened.... at least in my mind :)

1. Andrea's Liquor seems to be doing a little better at cleaning up their landscaping once in a while... But since I'm not welcome there anymore since I relocated their trash to their front door one day :) I will have to rely on you to tell them you don't appreciate it when the trash builds up in the landscaped area under the trees at the North end of the parking lot.

2. Mission Viejo Mayor Dave Leckness stopped me on the street one day to ask me what I was doing. I told him that I had some ideas about enlisting the help of our Mission Viejo citizens in helping to pick up trash in the city. I shared with him my initial idea that I was just "walking around Mission Viejo with a bag attitude".  He is interested in the idea and we're going to get together over coffee soon and talk some more about it.

So, I''ve been coming up with some ideas.  I'd love to hear any that you have as well....

1. Set up a recruiting table at Lake Mission Viejo to enlist the support of walkers and runners to "Get a Bag Attitude for Mission Viejo".  Maybe have a sign-up sheet for anyone who wants a tee shirt and trash grabbler at a discounted price (ie. at cost).

2. Go on Craig's List and/or FreeLance to get a service donation from someone who can set up an online "Adoption Site" where Mission Viejo citizens can adopt a street or path for 1 day each month and commit to walking that path "With A Bag Attitude". This would allow for some coordination among the Trash Brigade so that we don't have everyone just picking up trash around Lake Mission Viejo, which, I imagine, must be the cleanest path in Southern Orange County and doesn't need to be adopted.

3. I had a crazy idea as a project for a dance class and/or a video class at Saddleback wherein a "flash mob" assembles for a spontaneous parking lot cleanup at the Saddleback Lanes/CVS/Big Lots/Michael's/Trader Joe's Center across Marguerite from City Hall.  I think that a video like this posted on Youtube.com could give the idea some wheels and perhaps light a fire for a similar effort in other cities.

Anyway, this is the latest on the ideas I've been pondering.  I'm certainly interested in hearing from anyone who would like to get involved.