Lets clean up College Street

For more than a decade, the City of Lacey has had a plan to widen and improve traffic flow on College Street.   The proposal calls for widening the street, putting in bike lanes, better sidewalks, roundabouts and landscaped medians.  The plan hasn’t been implemented for two reasons – – cost and the impact on traffic flow during construction.

While the city waits, it treats College Street with benign neglect.  In the meantime, the street has become an eyesore and a garbage collection facility.

All along College Street, from Lacey Boulevard to the Yelm Highway, the property and right-away on both side of the street are littered with refuse.  Overturned grocery carts, beer bottles, black plastic bags full of garbage, liquor bottles and paper sacks from our more famous fast food chains full of someone’s leftovers, lay along the street.

The city will say that the responsibility to clean up the right-of-way falls on the property owners.  But, the city bears some responsibility as well.  It should organize a clean up effort, enlist the help of the property owners and make certain that safety is maintained in the process.

College Street is the main north/south thoroughfare in the city.  It’s a disgrace and sets a wrong example.  The city needs to clean it up.