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.

Trying "The Other Side"

I think I made a good dent in the litter on the "Felipe to Marguerite, Marguerite to Oso, Oso to Felipe" circuit. Today, I thought I'd cross Oso and pick up on either side of Felipe for about a half  mile North of Oso.

I was about half way through when a wonderful lady stopped to thank me.  How nice was that?  You know, so far, only two or three people have even acknowledged that they felt I was doing a good turn, but this was the first time anyone actually thanked me.  I said, "That's sweet of you, but if you really want to thank me, perhaps you'll join me, instead. Since you are obviously an exercise walker as well, why not go over to the Denault's True Value hardware store by Pavilions and pick up a trash grabbler for $8 and start walking with a bag in your hand. Then you can just pick up a little each day... I mean you're going to be out there anyway, right?.  Maybe if people see both of us doing it, each on our own, it will start them thinking more seriously about what it could mean for our city to get more people involved."

We parted with her thanking me again and promising to speak to her association about getting more people there to do it as well. I think I may have at least doubled the manpower on the Trash-Walker project... Well, at least I had a very pleasant conversation :)

Today was good.

Little blue bags in the bushes

How righteous must that particular few of our city's dog owners feel when they do the dirty task of picking up their pet's doodies while on their daily walks. They will, of course, use the convenient blue bags which our city provides them at local parks.

It is shocking to me to then see these same tied up bags of doody sitting on the sidewalk or ensconced in among the bushes. Come on, people, finish the job.  Don't "leave it for the gardeners" and then complain about the cost of maintaining our slopes.  Carry your little bag of doodie to a garbage can please. (of course, I'm not speaking to the responsible majority of our dog owners... just that particular few)

Local Merchants Not Much Help

So, today I trash-walked Marguerite from Felipe to Crown Valley Pkwy.  All along the way, I was picking up trash that was either tossed by patrons of Andrea's Liquor or blown down the street from where patrons tossed the garbage in the store parking lot.  Either way, by the time I got to Andreas (travelling South on Marguerite) I was more than a little miffed to find that the entire "landscaped" areas surrounding the parking lot was full of trash.  I went ahead and did my thing, picking up among the landscaping.

Then I went in and spoke with the owner and asked him how often he does that himself.  He said they have a sweeper that comes in nightly.  I said, "no, not the paved areas, all the landscaped areas."  He said, "I've complained to the landlord and she does nothing about it."  I said, "Please, understand that I am not complaining, I'm simply stating that regardless of what your landlord does or does not do, it is still your responsibility to clean up after the patrons of your business."

In the end, I offered to call his landlord personally, to "help". And he told me that it is really the property manager I must speak with. So I asked for information on the property manager.  He said he didn't have it handy.  I offered him my email address so he could send it to me. He said he doesn't have email anywhere in his life. I gave him my phone number and asked him to call me with the name and number of his property manager.  He politely took my name and number, which I am sure was expediently round filed.

Interestingly, I asked to use his restroom and he said he doesn't have public restrooms.  I said, "dude, come on, I just cleaned your parking lot".  He said, "there's too much stuff back there."

I'm pretty much done with Andrea's Liquors for anything ever again.

Story: How I became a Mission Viejo Trash Walker

I'm a resident of Mission Viejo and every once in a while, I have found myself getting fed up with all the litter that collects along the sides of our roadways here in town. It's not horrible, but it is substantial as stuff that flies out of cars and trucks lands in and among the very nicely maintained slopes that we all pay good money for and which really make our little city shine, in my opinion.  So, I'd grumble about the litter to myself and drive right on by.

Meanwhile, as an adult leader in a local youth organization that does a lot of backpacking, it is very typical behavior for us to see some trash on a nature trail and immediately pick it up and put it in our pack or pockets for when we next get to a proper trash receptacle.

So, another day and another grumble, and it just so happens that I drive by Lake Mission Viejo and what do I see but what looks like hundreds of "beautiful people" getting their exercise by marching around the lake. I have read that the distance is about 3 miles.  I thought to myself, "I'll bet that path is spic and span... too bad they don't walk other places...", and I continued on my way.

So I recently came back from a one week backpacking trip to Yosemite.  Kicked my butt at first, I must admit, but by the end of the week I felt real good, with the exception of a couple small blisters on my feet.  I was pleased to find that I had lost 12 pounds!  That was pretty inspirational to me and I thought I should keep it up and start walking as a good form of exercise.  So I dragged my kids with me on a 3 mile route adjacent to my home to try it out and as we were walking, son of a gun if we didn't see a bunch more trash at 2.5 miles per hour than I had even seen at 35 to 45 mph.  I grumbled and passed it by thinking that I wished I'd brought a bag and luckily enough, a saw a discarded plastic grocery bag  in the bushes.  I retrieved it and the kids and I made a game out of finding and retrieving trash the rest of the way back home.

Then it hit me...  Why not by a trash grabbler wand (whatever you call 'em) and make a point to walk a different path, or different side of the street every day and pick up the trash as I go.  Good for me, good for Mission Viejo....

And that is the story of how I became a Mission Viejo Trash Walker.

So this message goes out to all the beautiful people everywhere...  Try walking a path less traveled and pick up some trash along the way.  Same exercise, and you will feel better physically and spiritually as you make a very real difference for the benefit of your city and your fellow residents.