Hello Menlo Park City Council,
This is to inform you about the growing litter all over Menlo Park among other cities. When I take my daily walks, I try to clean as much litter as I can and return shopping carts to the stores they belong to. Ive returned as many as six shopping carts at one time. Carts may be left everywhere; sometimes they are tucked behind buildings and inside parking structures.
In downtown, litter is scattered on sidewalks and streets. When there is broken glass or building nails, I try to clean them up before they hurt anyone or puncture bicycle or car tires. People who sit in the downtown street closure area in front of Starbucks are too lazy to toss their litter in the nearby garbage or recycle bins. At Nealon Park, someone continuously leaves shopping carts containing many things, such as rocks, books, food, boxes, ripped up small pieces of paper, etc. When this person walks the carts, the small papers fly out of the cart onto streets and front yards. At Safeway, I reported a broken water system twice to the customer service desk associates and still saw the problem a couple of days ago. When I clean up, some passerbys look strangely at me while others compliment or thank me. A nice man said a restaurant worker said delivery or rideshare drivers contribute to the litter problem as they toss drink and food containers out their car windows. Attached are nine photos. However, they dont reflect the worst Ive seen. Please address these concerns and reply if possible. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Annie
