Fix, Clean & Make Schenectady Sustainable

The City of Schenectady has modernized and rebuilt the business district; however some areas downtown have been neglected; they are afflicted with persistent littering, broken roads, and sidewalks. In addition, the city operates with an outdated waste and recycling system (since 2016) that needs to be upgraded.
In 2021 the City of Schenectady was awarded 53 million in federal COVID funding- the so-called American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). City officials spent all those funds on improving the City's economy, including a whopping $14.6M for a new municipal pool and other nonprofit projects.
This petition presents the areas that need to be cleaned/fixed up, in addition to ideas, solutions, projects, mandates, and ordinances that could resolve these old persistent problems in our city. Please sign it.

THE MOST LITTERED PLACES IN SCHENECTADY. State Street, from Brandywine up to Elm Street. Albany Street and Duane Avenue. McClellan Street- starting on Union Street up to State Street. Seneca Street, from Erie Blvd Van Wranken Avenue. Erie Blvd, near the train tracks behind the Gas station and Market, from the Union Street rail overpass to All Town Market. Entrances and exits of the I-90 Highway, the 890 Crosstown, and I- 88; starting at the entrance in Rotterdam and continuing for many miles; trash stretches up to Middleburgh.
ROADS/Sidewalks in most NEED of REPAIR. Albany Street- in the areas that need it most. Starting at Altamont Avenue at the intersection with Hamburg Street to Duane Avenue (over the 890 Crosstown) and down to Brandywine Avenue- ending at State Street. McClellan Street; from Rugby Road to at least Ellis Medicine parking lot, and the opposite side of McClellan (from State Street to the 1st intersection) needs repaving. Lancaster Street between Gerling and Belmont Avenue, where the front of Zoller Elementary looks like a swamp. Sheridan Avenue, from Gerling Street to Regal Street. Elm Street and Robinson Streets (where Lincoln Community Elementary is located).

IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS TO REDUCE LITTER
1. Deploy trash & recycle bins, no-littering signs, and cameras in the areas mentioned above that are littered the most, and also in places where people buy/consume food/drinks (stores, restaurants, bus/train stations, the airport, schools, libraries, hospitals, parks, etc.).
2. Place no-littering signs and cameras on Schenectady's highway entrances/exits and along both sides and some of the middle area of Crosstown 890.
3. Hire environmental inspectors whose main objective will be to keep the City clean and to educate and engage the public on how to keep the city clean and sustainable.
4. Update the waste/recycling system in Schenectady to a more modern, efficient, and effective one; since the single stream isn’t working, because of high rates of contamination (up to 40%), inefficiency, and lack of education and enforcement are making it obsolete. According to the recycling/waste industry, San Francisco is one of the few U.S. cities that diverts more material for reuse than it sends to the landfill, achieving a 50–60% diversion rate per year. The Californian city uses a "Fantastic Three" three-stream citywide residential and commercial curbside collection program—a black bin for trash, a blue bin for commingled recyclables, and a green bin for compostable materials (including food scraps and soiled paper). On the education front, sanitation workers routinely “audit” streams with every pickup, leaving targeted notes for customers and businesses on how they did. And here locally, Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia is a model of sustainability; they recycle bottles, cans, glass, plastic, cardboard, and paper.

MANDATES / ACTIONS NECESSARY TO MAKE THE CITY SUSTAINABLE
1. Enforce no-littering laws with warnings and stiff fines as does the State of Massachusetts (their highway no-littering signs say: Up to $10,000 for littering).
2. Mandate that everyone recycles, especially businesses; those that sell food and drinks in plastic containers/jars/bowls/bottles/cups, cans, etc.), and require them to have recycling bins both in and around their premises. This includes public entities/places; they too must be mandated to recycle.