The good with the bad. I have noticed, with the large green city issued trash cans, that people leave them out 24/7. My neighbor seems to have a never ending over flowing trash can. In the early 2000s, the city would slap a fine on people who left their cans out when it was not the appointed day. Now the city does nothing.

Next there seems to be no control over apartments and schools. Drive down Ploy street in the early hours and it looks like a farmer is running his herd of rats to market. The several apartments and the School For the arts. have small dumpsters, that are nearly always over flowing.

To add a little salt in the wound. All property owners. in Mt Vernon, have to pay a special district tax. This was started about 25 yrs ago, and back then there were a number of extra services which the property owner got. Such as- weekly sidewalk sweeping, in coordination with a vacuum jitney which would vacuum the streets and the sidewalk litter. Unarmed guards, patrolling the streets. Large planters, and several other items. These services were performed by Midtown and Downtown Partnership. Since the 2008 recession most of the services stopped. In recent years only the vacuum buggy is seen on rare occasions and a handful of planters are dropped off mid spring to fend for themselves. In the early days it all worked well, now its just theft by the city on property owners.