I -- and a few other neighbors -- make it a habit to pick up litter along Ola as I walk between my house and the corner newspaper dispenser at Ola & Linebaugh. I usually buy the paper only on weekends, but I notice neighbors making pick-ups of litter on various daily errands. 
Taking pride in your community adds a lot to its value.
One thing I have noticed is that wherever there is an un-mowed right-of-way there appears to be a larger collection of litter, almost as if the litter-bugs selected that location to toss trash. Or, perhaps the trash blows to those locations and catches in the tall weeds/grass, collecting there. Either way, it's there, looking unsightly, and giving the impression that we don't care about our community. 
Our neighborhood gets a lot of visitors in the form of traffic to the high school-- especially along Ola near the stadium. Seeing trash already there just encourages the addition of more. A number of the houses on Dartmouth whose property backs up to Ola do not maintain the right-of-way on a regular basis, and there is a lot of trash that collects there. This encourages others to dump items there (such as old mattresses 
) . It would be nice if we could show community pride by keeping these right-of-way areas cleaned up. It would help property values, too.
I realize that some of the residents may be unable to maintain their property, especially the area along Ola, due to physical impairments or other factors. Plus it's sort of "out of sight, out of mind", sitting there behind the privacy fence. I'd like to see other neighbors help these homeowners out in maintaining the right-of-ways, but the owners have to let us know that they have a problem so that we'll know to help. We don't want to embarrass anyone 
by simply going ahead and mowing it for you.
How about talking to one another and solving this little problem among ourselves, before city code enforcement gets involved? 
Thanks.
