Portland residents who spend any time in Portland’s parks or trails have seen discarded needles. Mayor Dion’s proposal to scale back the number of needles the city gives out is sound. The needles are litter. Opponents of his plan keep mentioning education as a way to fix the problem. If that remedy worked, we would not be dealing with this issue now.
To better understand the problem of litter, I went to the Keep America Beautiful website, where it states: “Litter negatively affects the environment, waterways, property taxes, home values, tourism and business, quality of life and health and safety in communities.”
Let’s give Mayor Dion’s common-sense approach a chance because the situation, as it stands, is not working.
Holly McKibben
Portland
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