If it takes the visit of a dictator, whose communist party has threatened the security of our country, for state governors and city officials to get off their asses when it comes to cleaning their cities, then we should, by all means, invite them to all our other polluted cities.
Earlier this month, Xi Jinping, the president of China arrived in San Francisco marking his first visit to the U.S. after six years.
The streets of San Francisco however aren’t exactly known for being the “world’s greatest most extraordinary place,” as California Governor Gavin Newsom likes to put it.
It’s instead notoriously known for its rampant homelessness and polluted streets. Yet upon Jinping’s arrival, it was conveniently cleaned up.
The streets Jinping would visit were cleared of all the trash and tent cities along with the homeless people who were moved to other parts of the city.
The city also experienced a drop in criminal activity.
According to the San Francisco Standard, “There has been a noticeable reduction in the number of tents and drug activity along Van Ness Avenue… and the area around the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, which has long been the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis.”
The San Francisco Standard also published several before and after photos of San Francisco before and after the cleanup.
The photos showcase how before the clean-up, streets were filled with trash, graffiti and crowds of homeless people. After the clean-up, the streets are mostly empty and free of litter and graffiti.
“I know what folks say, ‘they’re just cleaning up this place cus all those fancy leaders are coming into town.’ That’s true because it’s true,” Newsom admitted
Newsom later explained, “Any time you put an event, by definition, you have people over your house, you’re going to clean up the house.”
This should upset many people because it shows that these city and state officials do have the resources needed to give their most tainted regions a very needed deep cleaning.
People should be able to keep their houses clean every day but some might admittedly be too busy but still able to make time to give their homes a deep cleaning once a week or at the very least once a month.
Or if they have money, which all of these officials certainly have, hire someone to clean their houses daily.
These officials, however, have set this precedent that they’ll only clean their streets that desperately need it, whenever it’s convenient for them or they have important foreign figures visiting and not because the citizens living there need it.
State and city officials should use their resources to give the cities and streets they represent a deep cleaning on a weekly to monthly basis as simply doing it once yields positive benefits such as a drop in criminal activity.
