Presidents’ Day is cleanup day
Local residents are encouraged to join the cleanup brigade at Americana Drive in Annandale on Monday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. It should be nice weather, with a high of 59 degrees predicted.
Cleanups at Americana Drive have been going on for years, as the roadside attracts lots of construction debris from commercial trucks as well as general litter.
Nearly 50 people have already signed up for the President’s Day cleanup. Sign up here.
Volunteers should meet at the corner of Americana Drive and Patriot Drive. Trash bags and other cleanup items will be provided.
The event has already drawn a number of partners, including Braddock Supervisor James Walkinshaw, VDOT, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, FACETS (the organization spearheading Opportunity Neighborhoods-Annandale), Friends of Accotink Creek, the Fairfax County Restoration Project, and the Vistas of Annandale.
Workers in the county’s Operation Stream Shield program will help clean up the area on Feb. 17, as they don’t work on Mondays.
At previous cleanups, volunteers have found some strange items, so think about the event as a treasure hunt.
Americana Drive deserves a lot more love and respect from all of us. Please join us at the cleanup, see the problems, and share the need for solutions with friends and neighbors.
Need multi lingual signs that say “no littering” and “pick up trash” “fine of $1000 for littering.” Trash would reduce massively.
Would if we could. VDOT won’t allow them. VDOT doesn’t have multilingual signage.
‘NO LITTERING OR DUMPING $1000 FINE’ Don’t think its a stretch to think that someone involved with each load of debris understands that basic admonishment. And even with the signs, catching someone in the act is nearly impossible. Wish I had an idea for a solution, but fact is a group of guys in a pickup doing odd jobs will choose the path of least resistance when it comes to emptying the back, and a drive out to Fair Oaks or down to Lorton with the accompanying fee ant the gas and time to get there will lose out every time. Maybe a stout fence along the stretch where this occurs?
Another big problem is the parking above the curb. It disturbs the soil and when it rains it goes right into the storm drains and finds its way to Lake Accotink along with all the other sediment. The related stories are here in Annandale Today. Nothing is enforced and the chaos continues.
Why celebrate our horrible racist forefathers who founded a despicable country (rooted in misogyny and racism), when I can pick up masks, used condoms, and hypodermic needles?
We are celebrating them by holding this event on President’s Day and keeping their treasure clean.
The forefathers of the United States were not saints, but none of the world’s leaders are, past-present-future. The United States’ forefathers did something remarkable for the each of us and the world. They founded our country on ideas of liberty, the greatest freedom to succeed or fail (based on your talents and abilities), and equal treatment under law. It’s taken 200+ years to expand that as well as generations (regardless of race/gender) for many to improve or see their children do better. No other country in the world has yet to match that – both social & economic flexibility (greatest opportunity to go up or down). All of theses efforts to focus on faults is an angle to “get something” from others, instead of making efforts to improve yourself as well as make the hard choices to improve your children’s opportunities. Stop being a self boxed in victim that doesn’t realize the benefits of living in the United States & do something productive with the opportunities out there. You are NOT entitled to equity of outcomes. No one is.
If they were such terrible people, should you really be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their work? Freedom of speech, religion, persist of happiness… all that good enlightenment stuff that was actually much more progressive than most societies on earth at the time. Isn’t hypocritical to stay here if you think it’s so immoral? You could always try the alternatives like North Korea, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba… many there would gladly trade places w us in a heart beat.