Go into any neighborhood in any part of the city and there is an easy way to tell if people care about their community. Can you see trash in the streets? Then probably not. Can you see trash on front lawns? Then definitely not.
Usually, a trash-strewn lawn is a sign of a rental property. Most people would suggest that landlords are responsible. True, to an extent. But what does it say about the people living in a home that they won’t pick up litter in their own yard, even if it was thrown by someone else? Not much. And really, you are going to wait for your landlord to come around?
There is no excuse. York has a great trash-collection program. The trucks come two times per week, with once-a-week recycling.
The green recycling bins tend to fall apart — I’ve had one in a state of decay for months now — and they cost $5 to get a replacement from the city. Here’s a tip. City residents can get free recycling bins later this month. You will need to go to the square 8-10 a.m. on April 30 to get one. Bring your driver’s license. (I would post a link, but the city doesn’t seem to have one on its website, and I even called to check.)
On your way home, pick up some trash. It will be your good deed for the day, and, if you make that a habit, everyone will know that residents of York care. All they will need to do is look around.

Cory Booker, the innovative mayor of Newark, N.J., was on the Charlie Rose show the other day.
Go to this link to check it out.
Newark has serious problems. But it has huge potential with it being just a few miles from New York City. Booker talks about the whole city taking responsibility for tapping that potential and turning the city around. He doesn’t fall into the trap of pointing fingers. The city and its residents are responsible for the city’s plight and for making it better, he maintains.
Neighborhood by neighborhood, people have to work together to take control back from the selfish people who litter, sell drugs or allow crimes. That is commonsense, really, but often difficult in cities. Booker makes it sound possible — with everyone becoming a leader in the cause, not just those with titles.
The Avenues in York is a place where you can see that happening in little ways and big ways, whether it is neighbors sending out email alerts about a burglary or the “Daffodil Days” on Saturday at the park. I was out of town on Saturday, so I missed it. But a neighbor said it was a great success.
I would look for Booker to be in the national spotlight some day. I like to consider myself a bit of an urban pioneer, having always bought houses in cities. But when my wife worked in Newark and I worked in New York, we looked at houses in Newark for about a half a day and decided we weren’t that bold. That was 10 years ago. If Booker had been mayor then, we might have been swayed.
Leadership at the top counts, too.

The York Daily Record had a nice story the other day about some ex-cons who are getting a fresh start, having started their own business cutting hair. A half-way house is planned down the street in York, and they were on the record to say they support it. It’s hard to come out against such things, when you believe in redemption and in trying to help those who are trying to help themselves. But, as some people in the Avenues have long maintained, city neighborhoods have more than their fair share of such accommodations.
One such resident, Charles Bacas, wrote to the paper to make that point: “Recall the Avenues Neighborhood Association meeting a few years ago when a County Probation officer told us that Allegheny county had targeted York City as the place to send their released prisoners because of the easy rules and plentiful halfway houses that we have! Recall that as one of his last acts as a state legislator, Cong. Todd Platts helped defeat the placing of a Methadone treatment facility in Spring Garden! … For that is the issue — fair sharing of such facilities. The grand old homes in The Avenues Neighborhood were targeted for conversion to halfway houses long ago, and we have accommodated far too many of them. But we also now have back-to-the city folks who are buying and restoring some of these old homes to their former grandeur and we need to give such enterprising people a fair chance too.”

As the weather has gotten a bit warmer, I’ve been making a point of walking from the Avenues to downtown York. My wife, her daughter and their friends had gone to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade earlier this month and called me to join them. It was wonderful to see the crowds, and that was the start of my new trend.
Last weekend, I took a stroll by myself. The crowds were gone but the walk still was quite enjoyable. York truly is a pretty city up close, filled with potential.
But do you know when York truly will have turned a corner? It will be when you can pass by someone on the sidewalk and make eye contact and a simple smile and a hello will mean nothing more or nothing less than a friendly gesture.