Dear Editor:
First, when the city sprays pesticides on places, like grassy areas in parks, why does it only post a few, small warning flags, in places most parents don’t even notice? If this stuff is bad for children, why do you not post HUGE warnings, clearly visible to all, warning us of the real dangers that pesticides pose? The tiny (about the size of a cigarette pack) signs are placed in the middle of fields, about 2 feet off the ground. That’s great for dogs and toddlers, but how many parents can read that sign, BEFORE realizing their kids are playing in harmful chemicals? I am referring, specifically to the newly completed park behind the Maxwell House complex. I didn’t notice the sign yesterday, until I wandered through the grass. And then I saw another tiny sign, near the walkway, but it was turned toward the center of the field! No one on the walkway could read it, so it was only helpful to those who had already crossed the line and put themselves, and their children, in harm’s way. And can someone tell me how long pesticides pose a danger to people and pets? With no rain, how long does it take before those chemicals are absorbed naturally and neutralized to humans?
Second, the city engineer needs to look at the riverfront walkway, on the north side of Hudson Tea Bldg. It’s sinking, into the cove. Stand near the building’s back door and look at bricks and concrete, only a few years laid, already knocked around and cracking. Then, look at the base of your handrail. It’s leaning ever more each day, into the cove. Your foundation is in mud and soot. Time to address the issue, before it gets worse and somebody gets hurt.
Lastly, again in Maxwell Park, I watched and cried as public employees, sent to clean up the park, were cleaning trash from the rocks along the water. Love that they did, but why did someone instruct them to remove the all the beautiful driftwood? Remove the trash we put there, but Mother Nature is taking care of her own by decomposing wood, using those stones and the water that constantly batters it. Can you not just throw the driftwood back into the water, save some, and leave the rest? I don’t consider it an eyesore, and I often collect pieces of driftwood for art, or to make canes and walking sticks. And consider all the tax money we could save! You pay people to pick it up, you use trucks and gasoline to transport it elsewhere, and I pray you are not paying to dump it into a landfill. Mother Nature is quite capable of disposing of her own trash. She needs us to worry about OUR trash, the stuff she can’t possibly convert back to nature, in most lifetimes. Plastic is horrendously choking our waterways, wooded areas, plants and animals. But styrofoam, Oh God, don’t get me started on the evil of this ever-lasting scourge. Thanks for listening.
Stephen Marlowe