Nolan Finley: Litterbugs pile on to Detroit's woes

A city can't help that its lifeblood industry collapses, destroying its tax base and leaving it awash in unemployment.

A city can't help that the recession has dried up investment dollars, choking off economic development and keeping promising revitalization projects on hold.

A city can't even help that its politicians turn out to be crooks and clowns, demoralizing its residents and giving it a national black eye.

But a city can help the way it looks -- at least to the point of not covering itself in a layer of litter.

I'm disgusted at the amount of trash blowing around Detroit this spring. Plastic bags and bottles, foam cups, discarded newspapers, detritus of every sort is stacked up against freeway fences and caught in roadside curbs.

I took a ride around Belle Isle on a beautiful sunny day last week, and it looks like a garbage dump. The waterfront is strewn with the cast-offs of fishermen -- empty bait boxes, packages that once held rods and reels, milk jugs and broken lawn chairs.

The fields are blooming with crumpled fast food bags. Nearly every foot of pavement is covered with glass fragments. Meanwhile, the trash barrels scattered every hundred yards or so are empty.

"It's a mindset here," says Ann Lang, president and CEO of Downtown Detroit Partnership, which teams with Goodwill Industries to sweep the trash from downtown. "People do stuff in Detroit they wouldn't think of doing somewhere else."

Why is that? The answer can't be just about economic conditions. It doesn't cost a dime to walk 10 feet to throw your burger wrapper in a garbage can.

Having an impoverished and unemployed population also doesn't cut it as an excuse. If someone can make a credible connection between being out of work and the impulse to throw your empty water bottles out the car window, I'm all ears.

I realize the city has cut some of its garbage collection service to save money. But even if it were picking up trash twice a week, it couldn't stay ahead of the morons who break beer bottles on the sidewalks.

I'm eager to understand how some people can love the outdoors enough to fish off the bank of one of the prettiest urban rivers in America, and yet they don't seem to mind sitting on piles of their own rubbish.

This fouling of our own nest is reflective of a community that has just given up.

We don't care enough to keep ourselves clean. We've neglected our appearance and don't worry about how others see us.

Maybe we think: What's a few more paper napkins against the backdrop of blight and abandonment that marks so many Detroit neighborhoods?

But as Lang says, how we take care of ourselves does make a difference.

"People come in from out of town and see how clean downtown is, and it changes their impression of the city," she says.

We can't do much about many of the forces afflicting Detroit.

But we can pick up a candy wrapper. Or better yet, not throw it down.

Before you can revive a city, you have to respect it enough to keep it clean.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The Detroit News. His column runs on Sunday and Thursday. nfinley@detnews.com">nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064