Bran, i wish that were true (that our streets are cleaner than yours)

there are many ways to treat public space. Some see public space as part of the commonweal, and care for it.
others see it as 'wasted' (not producing income, valueless) and are careless.

a small percentag of litterers can leave, in there wake, a good deal of garbage. i live 1 block from a large commercial area. (there exists 1 large block of shops in a 2 storey structure, and another multi level block of shops is being built.)

there are street vendors too, (fruits and vegitable vendors, an other vendor of food (hot dogs, soda & snack, an ice cream truck, newpaper vendors.. and others) and there are many visitors to the stores from other areas who have little (or no) interest in good civic behavior. they have no sense of 'owning' public spaces, no sense of pride of place, (and they don't feel this neighborhood that they come to shop in, is their place either)

its been shown, once a certain level of 'dis array' is reached, even normally civil people become litterbugs.. (they feel their napkin, or food wrapper is not significant in the general collection of debree to found.) some days the streets and sidewalks are quite messy!

my other obsession