Periodically, a rash of letters to the editor from Baltimore City residents appears in The Baltimore Sun on reasons the writers might desire to move out of the city. Top reasons given usually are crime, schools and high taxes. Some residents also might hold high on their list the lack of good road maintenance and soaring water bills. All these reasons have caused my wife and me on occasion to consider if they were sufficient in combination to dislodge us from our city home. One reason not listed above for considering moving from the city has risen to the top of my personal list: trash.

My wife and I live in a pleasant, multicultural neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore where most all residents are diligent in keeping their properties litter free. One need only walk a few blocks in the city in certain directions from our community, however, to be overwhelmed by the unsightly (too kind an adjective) heaps of trash accumulated along the roadsides. I am an avid walker, and in my long walks, I often stray some distances from my home-based community. Streets in some areas I used to frequent I now try to avoid because of the distress I feel in these places when I observe the disgraceful display of heavings and leavings of refuse strewn over residential yards, open fields, areas close to apartment complexes and along main thoroughfares.

How have our city streets come to be adorned in such a state of untidiness? Who are these people who wantonly discard trash from car windows or toss while on foot, disposing the remains of their fast-food meal, for example? Did they, when young, not have parents and other mentors teach them that tossing even a gum wrapper on the street was a no-no? Or if they did, have they discarded this particular rule of good citizenship, along with their trash, because they observe others ignoring it? Or have they been conditioned to litter as attendees at stadium events, movie theaters and mass gatherings like the Preakness, where they are allowed to leave behind tons of trash, knowing staffs assigned to the venues will dutifully clean up their messes afterward? Is the trashing of our streets just a carryover from what is habit at these events? “Throw-away society” has taken on a double meaning.

Blame for untoward amounts of litter on Baltimore streets should not be leveled at the Department of Public Works for not doing its job, and millions of city tax dollars shouldn’t have to be spent on cleaning up areas that never should have been despoiled. And while we applaud the efforts of people who organize trash-collection efforts in neighborhoods and public places, we should have no need for these undertakings in an ideal world. This endemic Baltimore trash disease is the fault of unthinking, uncaring, and unconscientious citizens of the city and outlying-areas who deposit their leftovers as they traverse the streets. Elimination or significant reduction of Baltimore’s trash problem requires the combination of changing attitudes of those who commit the offense and tougher enforcement.

Changing the attitude of offenders will takes years of inculcating young people through education and example of elders who abide by the rules. Realistically, in the near term, the latter — the stick of enforcement — is required. Baltimore mayors in the past have initiated campaigns of sorts to “encourage” trash reduction, with varying amounts of success for very limited time. Certainly our current mayor, council members and other city leaders should continue to mobilize efforts to clean up messes that litterers have deposited irresponsibly on our streets.

Clearly, this will not be enough. Baltimore’s litter laws carry stiff enough penalties to succeed in reducing refuse if they could be enforced. Enforcement is made almost impossible when perpetrators seldom can be caught in the act by those responsible for enforcement. Stricter enforcement may only be possible through tougher measures, including possibly the placement of mobile cameras in high-trash areas to catch and fine drive-by litterers and those on foot who can be identified. Funds for this effort might be diverted from funds currently used by DPW in cleaning up despoiled neighborhoods. Although howls of “big brother” undoubtedly will be levied against this suggestion, Big Brother and Big Sister would not need to be watching over if everyone abided by the laws against littering.

Fred C. Knauf lives in Baltimore; his email is chucknauf@comcast.net.