Respect out with the trash

Trash that is produced by a person or group of people reflects the quality of thought being used by said group.

Apparently, there is not much thought happening by some Cal State Long Beach students.

In front of the Bixby Hill Gardens, a townhouse complex on Iroquois Street, there is trash strewn everywhere.

Residents of Bixby Hill Gardens are complaining that since the students of CSULB have discovered this area in which to park in, trash has replaced the natural scenery.

They have every right to be upset.

Students represent this campus when they are on campus and when they are not. As adults, they should also be able to recognize when an action is not right.

It is believed that at a place of higher education, the students reflect intellectual superiority. This would in turn mean better judgment used as well.

But obviously that is not the case.

To the surrounding neighbors of this campus, students are ambassadors. Students are seen as an extension of CSULB. And at the same time, all actions are reflected not only on the individual, but on the university.

Now that trash is being littered in the streets, residents want to get together and appeal to the city to remedy this problem.

If the appeal has enough support, the city might put up more meters.

City officials could also make it a permit zone and students wouldn't be able to park there at all.

In any case, unless littering students on this campus get their acts together, they will ruin privileges for other students who do not feel compelled to treat the streets like their personal trash cans.

Ironically, residents have actually witnessed students taking plastic bags and neatly inserting the trash inside, and then throwing the makeshift trash receptacle into the street.

The most obvious solution to this problem is for students to take their trash, keep it with them and as soon as they encounter a trash can, throw it away.

The easiest and most common sense solution to accommodate others is to put a trash can on Iroquois Street. That way, there will be no excuse for anyone to say that there is no place to put it.

These solutions seem simple but for those who litter it is a more complex concept.