You’re Not Heartless for Wanting Clean Sidewalks—There is actually a Fast Fix

Time to stop feeling bad about our rotting cities, there is a way to fix them....

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

A plan for clean sidewalks and real exits; we all see it. Sidewalks that once belonged to families and shopkeepers now feel like open air triage. Everyone agrees it is a problem. Then comes the reflex. Yeah but. Yeah but there are so many of them. Yeah but it has been this way for years. Yeah but the politics are hard. That chorus is not compassion. It is surrender. It lets politicians talk like they are rinsing a few plates after dinner while our streets fill with rubbish, an underclass hardens in plain view, and rot creeps in block by block.

Great cities are built on shared rules and mutual regard. Lately we have traded rules for resignation. Enough. Retire the yeah but. Set a clear standard for public space. Enforce it with fairness. Offer real exits that actually move people off the street. Publish the results so trust has a chance to grow again. That is how a city remembers who it is.

Why we freeze

We freeze because the problem feels endless, because the images are hard to look at, and because the talkers behind podiums keep telling us to wait while they form another working group. We freeze because a fake choice gets pushed in our faces. Either accept chaos in the name of compassion, or crack down and pretend addiction disappears. That is a cartoon. Real cities can walk and chew gum. You can keep public space clean and safe, and you can move people toward treatment and housing at the very same time.

What this is not

This is not a call to shove people around or to criminalize illness. It is a call to end the shrug. Rules belong in public space. Help belongs in real programs that work. Accountability belongs everywhere.

The street level standard: “Clean sidewalks”

Safe streets. No lewd conduct. No blocking doorways. No camping on sidewalks. These are basic rules that most residents already follow without a reminder. Post the standard. Enforce it with consistency. Pair it with a real place to take people the same day. That is how order stops being a slogan and starts being the daily operating system of a city. Public drug use, lewd conduct, blocking sidewalks, and camping on sidewalks are not allowed. Enforce those laws daily, not in quarterly bursts.

Actual Consequences

Use presence and predictable consequences. Treat people with dignity while making the line clear. Break up open air drug markets Go after the specific hot blocks that drive fear and harm. Focus arrests on violent actors and organizers. Use stay away orders for the blocks that keep getting hit. Do not run a dragnet.

Action Steps

Do run a focused stand up 24 hour triage and stabilization effort. When officers clear a block there must be a place to take people that minute. These centers do medical screening, start medications for opioid use disorder, and move people to treatment or a rule based shelter the same day. No more doorways to nowhere. Use the courts for the hardest cases for people who repeatedly harm themselves or others and refuse care, use lawful tools that require engagement. Court ordered outpatient treatment where statutes allow it. Clear due process. Real follow through.

It’s all about the rules and the Follow Thru

The point is safety and a path back, not punishment for its own sake. Create shelter that people will actually use, run clean, with supervised navigation style shelters near transit. Curfews that are enforced. Storage for belongings. On site case managers who can place people into longer term housing. Simple rule set. Clear consequences. Visible order. Pay for sobriety for stimulants For meth and cocaine there is no daily pill.

No More Stupid Studies

What works is contingency management. Verified clean tests earn small rewards over months. Fund it through Medicaid and local budgets. It is practical. It is humane. It moves people. Publish the scoreboard and live by it Every month, post numbers by block. Encampments resolved. Public lewdness and dealing arrests. People moved into treatment or shelter. Overdoses reversed. Needles collected. If a block backslides, surge enforcement, outreach, and sanitation until it holds. If a tactic fails, cut it. If a tactic works, scale it.

Safe Consumption Sites

What about safe consumption sites? Here is the straight answer. No neighborhood should be asked to live with disorder on the sidewalk. If a city operates overdose prevention rooms, they must be judged by what happens inside and outside. Keep drug use inside. Put staff on the block. Coordinate with police on a no dealing perimeter. Pair the site with sanitation sweeps and syringe pickup. Co locate treatment and housing navigation so the door in is also a door out. Publish outcomes for the immediate area. If a site cannot meet that bar, it should not be open.

Stop The Yak, Yak, Yak of the Politicians

The Politicians problem… Too many politicians talk like this is a chore that can be pushed to next week. They hold press events, invent a task force, and move on. That routine has turned public frustration into a steady burn. Here is a better rule. No more press conferences without a map, a timetable, and a scoreboard. No more speeches without an address and a deadline. Show the block. Show the team. Show the date. Then show the before and the after. We should insist on these things. Order is not the enemy of compassion. Order is what allows compassion to work.

We Can Make This Work

Families need to walk a sidewalk without fear. Small businesses need customers who are not stepping over chaos. People on the street need a real path out, not a paper flyer and a promise. Great cities do not pick one of those needs. Great cities manage to meet all of them at once.

A closing promise Retire the “yeah but.” Replace it with “yes and.” Yes it is hard, and we will enforce the rules. Yes people suffer, and we will move them to treatment and housing today. Yes budgets are tight, and we will track results and cut what fails. Cities do not heal by wishing. They heal by choosing. One standard. One plan. One block at a time.

A Good First Step

If your mayor or council wants to know what to do next week, hand them this. Start with the worst block in town. Set the standard on paper and on the street. Open the triage door. Clear the market. Publish the scoreboard. Then do it again. This is how you stop decay and start a comeback.