Darleene Barrientos
Maple Park is a haven for its neighborhood's older residents, who
want a shady, peaceful place to play chess and other board games with
friends.
But the park is also a magnet for smokers, who apparently throw
their cigarette butts and food wrappers everywhere but into
trashcans.
Members of the city's Neighborhood Services staff and volunteers
from the Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Glendale and
CitySearch.com armed themselves Thursday with plastic bags and litter
picker-uppers and got to work. Workers picked up the cigarette butts,
gum wrappers, soda cans and water bottles surrounding park benches
and tables, trees and in the children's play area.
The litter pick-up is also part of the Committee for a Clean &
Beautiful Glendale's litter assessment, an annual requirement as an
affiliate of the Keep America Beautiful organization. City workers
began their citywide effort Wednesday. The workers have a scale they
use to grade the cleanliness of neighborhoods.
"This neighborhood will probably get one of the [worst] scores in
Glendale," said Sandra Rodriguez, a city public education program
specialist, gazing down Raleigh Street alongside the park.
There are 20 routes from south Glendale to the La
Crescenta/Montrose area the committee will observe. Committee members
will rate each one, block by block, on a scale of one to four. A one
is designated a "No Litter" zone, where a scorer has to look hard to
see any litter. A four is "Extremely Littered," where a continuous
amount of litter can be seen around the area.
"This bag is going to fill up on cigarette butts alone," said
Noreen Benjaminsen, a city public education specialist picking up
trash. She has also found candy, gum and fast food wrappers, along
with newspapers and plastic bottles.
"Just about anything that can be littered," she said, shaking her
head.
Oganes Acopian, who was intent on a game of chess as six of his
friends watched, said the workers were doing a good job.
"It's pretty clean -- as clean as can be," Acopian said through a
translator.
Volunteer Linda Navarro, a La Crescenta resident, said the park's
visitors should pitch in too.
"Compared to Los Angeles, this is gorgeous," Navarro said. "I was
trying to talk to some of these men, trying to encourage them to keep
their beautiful park up, but I don't think they understand."
