As the temperatures rise and the snow starts to melt, it’s supposed to give way to blooming flowers, green grass and passable sidewalks.
But what’s blooming on some city streets is the trash that’s buried under the snowbanks spurting over the past few weeks.
On Grove Street in Beacon Hill, for example, pizza boxes, plastic bottles, cardboard and other items discarded before one of the many recent snowstorms have started to show themselves among the now-shrinking snow piles.
In other areas where the snowbanks remain several feet high, plastic trash bags await their pickup. Some have been torn open, spewing filth onto sidewalks.
For Beacon Hill resident Bill Gotfredson, the sight of trash littering the curbs and sidewalks at the end of winter is something he has become used to during his three years as a resident.
“It’s a little bit worse this year, because people put it out and we get more snow,” he said. “You just kind of grin and bear it. You wait for spring to come and street cleaning.”
City officials said crews are aggressively trying to pick up trash, but have also been working to make the streets safe with snow removal and filling newly created potholes.
And not all hope is lost as some residents have taken it upon themselves to clean up their streets.
On a recent drive through Beacon Hill, a man leaped out of the passenger seat of a car that was pulling out of a street parking space on Mount Vernon Street. He picked up a torn, muddied and black Whole Foods bag that was on the ground and put it in the trunk of the car.
