NORFOLK
Ever wonder what all those unsightly, amorphous black blobs are on downtown sidewalks?
Tar? Sometimes.
Dirt? Sort of.
Mostly, though, it's chewed- up, spit-out wads of gum. Over time, they get flat and hard and absorb a lot of crud.
One short block in front of MacArthur Center was studded with 1,390 gobs of goo.
Who's counting? The Downtown Norfolk Council, which is partnering with the city's storm water department to clean it all up.
The city recently bought a gum removal machine and generator for about $8,000 for the DNC's clean team ambassadors to rid the sidewalks of gum.
Each spot takes one to two minutes to clean using the gum sucker.
First, it's sprayed with a biodegradable cleaner. A blast of steam from a wand softens it. Then it's scrubbed with a bristly brush before being sucked into the machine.
Crews cleaned about 100 pieces next to the Federal Building in three hours last week.
Dixie Puckett, who works in the building, knew something looked different but couldn't place it.
"It's a great idea," she said. "I've always noticed the spots, but never knew that it was gum."
"I'm not surprised," Puckett said, adding that she gets gum stuck to her shoes almost daily walking down Granby Street.
Coast Guardsman Adrien O'Brien is well aware it's gum. "What a waste of taxpayer money," he lamented. "How are you going to police people from spitting it out again?"
"It's time-consuming, but worth it," said Rod McLeod, DNC's operations director. "There's so much of it right now - it's so much a part of the sidewalks - you won't appreciate it until it's cleaned up."
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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I must admit . . .
They have gotten down the "hierarchy" to gum, in cleaning up obnoxious things in Downtown Norfolk. There was a time when they couldn't keep up with cleaning up body fluids down there, but it has been a while since I nearly stepped in that sort of thing on the sidewalk. Cheers, MGM
Gummy sidewalk
Do what the Singapore have done to litterbugs--fine them $500.00 and jail time.
Ummm....
86% of DNC funding comes from a special services contract or fees for services contract. Just who would one suppose this "contract" is made with if it is not the city on the taxpayers dime? Now they are partnering with the stormwater management folks who don't get their funding by selling storm water either. It is curious, according to the demographics the DNC cites (20 to 30 something $80K semi-elite crowd), why all of this money is being spent to clean up their mess. Isn't this the same crowd that hates smoking, fat people, old people, people in general that are not of their NIMBY class? I boycotted NOfolk long ago for its ignorant city council policies.
It's more than 8 grand
You have to factor in the salary of the "crew".
Tax dollars? Probably not.
Is the DNC a Norfolk city department? My understanding is it is a private, not for profit, 501C-6 organization. Apparently, the funds spent were NOT tax dollars.
DNC
DNC = Downtown Norfolk Council (it was prefaced in the article).
Or if you wish, the Democratic National Convention - whichever floats your boat :)
Instead of wasting money on a stupid machine, why not put your inmates on the streets scraping this gum up the old fashioned way... with a scraper and a trash bag... That way you could have saved 8k.
Ridiculousness
If I was the press agent for the City of Norfolk, I would have done my very best to kill this story! Talk about ridiculous: wasting taxpayers' money on removing gum from the sidewalks and streets! As another poster put it: just ban gum and be done with it. Then if they could ban all the dropped cigarette butts they'd have it made.
Great article VP: shows more city waste. It is good that someone is pointing out and printing issues such as this so the people can rail against them and get such nonsense stopped!
Scraping Gum Off Sidewalks
Instead of the caption, "Chew on this" about the gum, I would prefer, "Stick this in your pipe and smoke it, Virginia is banning smoking in public." Cigarette butts tossed carelessly out of car windows is more hazardous than stepping on gum.
I agree with both of Gertz's comments
They're right on the mark. This isn't the best use of our tax dollars at all, and promises made must be kept by the city.
City crew
"How many are on a crew and how many crews do we have. Is the crew made up of 6 man or woman teams?"
At least 3 are in City of Norfolk crew. One working the "machinery" and two to supervise.
THIS IS NOT NEWS!!
Incompetent city government, high crime, drug dealers on every corner, people getting shot and horrendous shortages of police officers is news. This garbage doesn't deserve to cause the death of the tree to produce the paper it's printed on. If you are going to print this nonsense then at least keep it on the electronic version of the news and stop killing trees for this kind of drivel. It's not newsworthy and it explains why print media is dying at an exponential rate.
Crews
The article says that crews cleaned up about 100 pices in about 3 hours last week. Lets see do we only have one machine or how many do we have. How many are on a crew and how many crews do we have. Is the crew made up of 6 man or woman teams? One to haul the machine, one to unload the machine, one to start the machine, one to operate the machine, one to clean the machine, one to spot the gum. I would assume that the operator and associated people have been trained to operate this machine porpery as to not suck up the taxpayers money with a lawsuit for sucking to hard and sucking up something they are not supposed to. By the way what does the DNC stand for?
I agree,
Fine the galoots that spit out the gum or throw cigarette butts on the ground. This is just plain obnoxious and there should be stiff fines for this. You cannot park for more than 5 minutes down there without getting your tire chalked, so you know they have plenty of people to hand out tickets.
New Renenue
Sound like a new revenue stream to me. We could also levy a FAT tax for the wear and tear on the sidewalks. Give me 2 Big Mac's a large order of fries and a Diet Coke. You can't make this stuff up.
Just wondering
Can the gum then be cleaned, recycled, and repackaged for sale? Seems like it could just like used oil. Clean it, put the additives back in for flavor and you're good to go.
Gum Chewers
I once broke up with a woman when, after tolerating her low-brow lip-smacking for too long, she tossed the used-up gum from the car window. Warning to anyone who has a relationship--love, work, family--with a gum-chewer: You're dealing with a rude and cumpulsive fool.
Agree
Agree this is a waste of time. Instead of paying to clean up litter, how about prosecuting those who do it? $1000 fine for throwing a cigarrette butt out the car window. Second offense, $5000. Easy.
Rich huh?
It appears that norfolk is so rich with taxpayer dollars they can blow 8 grand on a toy. Must be nice to have a city so perfect that they don't need to do street repairs, upgrade schools, or improve emergency services to the citizens. Guess you can tell where norfolk council priorties are.
WOW!!!
...A $8000.00 downtown gum picker upper!!! you know...the last time I was mugged @ Wards Cornor...it was because my foot was stuck to a wad of discarded gum and I could not escape my attacker!!!...Thank You City Of Norfolk for this innovative crime stopping tool...I look forward to cleaner sidewalks in the future!!!
and my taxdollars paid for this?
Adopt Singapore's policy and not allow gum to be chewed in public. I live in OV, come suck up the blight in the east end. Go around Norfolk and fill the potholes, if you want to do something constructive to clean up Norfolk find something better to do with our dollars, and stop thinking "downtown" is the only area in this city. Where are those security lights for east end OV that were approved months ago?