The ordinance is meant to clean up the city, with carts abandoned all over it's an eyesore and brings down the value of the neighborhoods they are left in, and the city in general.We'll delve a little more into the views of some of the different sides and their opinions on the issue, BradfordToday remains neutral.

First the stores feel they may be hurt by the ordinance and are in favor of a solution to the problem that don't cost them business and make their customers suffer in the process. Representatives from the three main downtown stores, Tops, Parkview and Save-A-Lot say they go out every so often and round up carts on their own. Customers who take carts off the store property are typically poor, lower income citizens who have no other means to get groceries home and once the deed is over with, they often fail to return the carts.

The feelings of the majority of people we talked to think ridding the town of alot of abandon carts is a great start in trying to clean up the city of its many faults, among them graffiti, drugs, underage drinking and dilapidated properties that are truly eyesores.

While many agree that the carts are a problem, they disagree on the solutions to it and the extent of government involvement.

One sect agrees with the government involvement while others think its a problem the stores should take care of themselves. Main Street Manager Diane DeWalt suggested the stores could come up with a system to keep carts on their premises themselves and didn't think it was up to the government.

Along those same lines, we asked some citizens who wanted to remain partly anonymous their opinions of the ordinance. One point of view came from Todd [last name removed], "I think that the ordinance is fundamentally flawed. I agree that something needs done about the carts but this doesn't solve it. If the city is going to let the stores loan out carts to people and they must be returned in 24 hours, then how can you have a fine system? How can they tell if a cart isn't out on loan and it hasn't been 24 hours?"

He then goes on "The stores are the only ones being fined because no one is going to leave the carts in their own yard and the stores will most likely say they loaned out a cart to the customers who take them. We would need the police checking with the store with every customer they see taking a cart when they could be doing better things, like stopping crime."

"Unless if the city keeps track of carts they find that where in the same place for more than two days in a row, they could be making the stores pay the fine even if a good citizen intended to take the cart back. If the city is going to go out every morning and round up carts they find, how can they tell if the cart loanee don't intend to return it that day, like if they got groceries last night at 8 o'clock and but before they can take the cart back the next afternoon, the city already took the cart that morning, in essence making the store pay, even if it and customers follow the rules.  In order for it to really work, the city would have to hire a grocery cart officer."

Some people think the stores could paint a few carts green and only loan out these green carts while others came up with stores offering to loan out or sell to their customers "granny carts", those smaller sized two wheel carts that got that name because their mostly used by old ladies. Some suggest stores charge a deposit on any loaners, giving a good reason for customers to take them back.

With the carts estimated to cost around $300 each, you would think the stores would want to have a more pro-active view on retaining their carts.

Here is a view from a Bradford Taxpayer, "Because Bradford has a very large number of lazy scummers who have no sense of pride. They are so lazy, that they push full carts of food home, leave the cart a few houses away from where they live and leave it there. Then, the next time they go to the store food shopping, they take yet another cart, not caring about the store loosing a $300 cart or junking up the neighborhood they abandon the cart in. It's an on going problem in Bradford that has never been addressed before. There are many of us residents that are sick of this and want something done, instead of getting told 'Well, what can you do? It's been happening in Bradford for as long as I can remember'".

"The stores don't want to call their taken, non-returned carts 'stolen'. They do not want to report the carts stolen or prosecute those who take the carts. They feel they will loose business and customers. As sick as this may be, they depend on these 'faithful' customers who routinely remove their carts and don't return them. For a solution to happen, the stores need to be on board. THEY need to be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem like they are now."

"A bigger issue for me than shopping carts is the amount of litter I see from Burger King, McDonald's, and Arby's. Should we make them responsible for what their customers do with the packaging after they leave the property? How is this different from making store owners responsible for carts removed by customers?"

But there is a difference in carts and garbage from fast food restaurants. The carts aren't discarded trash, they belong to the stores while fast food wrapping belonged to the customer who throws it away but this only shows that to some people, the cart issue isn't as important to them as others.

Like Warner, even more feel that other issues should take priority. A poster on TAB said "I'd rather see the city be much more vocal and tough on the landlords and certain property owners who let their buildings go and become absolute dumps. And they are still able to rent them. I think the appearance of too many blighted properties in Bradford makes the shopping cart issue trivial. I'm embarrassed to drive around many parts of town with out-of-town guests because it is disgusting."

Stony, a member of BradfordToday and an environmentally conscious outdoorsmen from Allegheny Outdoor Adventures is a proponent of the shopping cart ordinance and cleaning up the town. "While out for a scenic walk along one of Bradford's waterway trails, I came across a pile of shopping carts. Somebody made a pile of some 6 or so carts along the trail. It seems these carts were pulled from the creek. A very big danger to those who recreate in the creek. I'd hate to be a kayaker or canoeist who might be unfortunate enough to get tangled in one of these. Or a fisherman in waders stepping onto or into one. "

Stony supplied us with these photos of his adventure near the Tuna Crossroads bridge. On the east side of the creek where they are building the "new trail" between the old tire place and the creek. Behind the ball fields in Foster Brooke.

End of the line for this cart! End of the line for this cart!

Is this one salvageable? Is this one salvageable?

Mangled up cart. Mangled up cart.

Pile of crap, or art sculpture? Pile of crap, or art sculpture?

Will these make it home? Will these make it home?

Can you identify the store this came from? Can you identify the store this came from?

[Stony] "I am on the side of dealing with the vagrant shopping cart problem. Not ignoring it like the stores wants to do. They claim 'all the carts make it back to the store eventually' and that is clearly not the case. It's not just my opinion, but a lot of us citizens recognize that stuff like the shopping carts all over in poorer neighborhoods makes Bradford look scummier than it needs to. And there is no good reason for it. If a person can walk a cart away from a store they should be able to walk it back empty."

While there are disagreement on both sides, one theme sticks. Everyone wants to clean up the town but how to do that is what's in question.

While the debate rages online, many people in Bradford don't know the cart ordinance exists or that there was a problem. When asked about the shopping cart ordinance and abandon shopping cart problem, one shopper at Tops said "What shopping cart ordinance?" and went on to say "I had no idea". In fact just about everyone we talked to at stores didn't know about the ordinance previously and most of the people we asked didn't care.

A woman from Parkview told us this "I don't care, I got an [make model removed, we'll call it an SUV] to get my stuff home". That seems to be the theme from many people who have transportation, they don't care either way. When asked if she thought there was a problem with abandon shopping carts in town, she said she didn't think so.

But most of these opinions come from people who don't live in effected areas. Here is an exert from TAB's chrissy1975, "I like this idea as weird as it was, people that don't live near a store don't realize what a pain in the butt carts are.We live around the corner from Parkview and you would not believe how ignorant people are when it comes time to take the cart back, people leave them all over on this street, they leave them right in front of my house or in the church parking lot, then the high school kids play around with them, they end up in our front yards or in the creek up the street. It is a pain in the butt and I am sure everyone on this street is sick of it, there was one put in front of someone else's house yesterday on this street."

Another person we asked about the issue lives in a neighborhood that is often littered with carts. "These low lifes leave the carts all over the place and something needs done about it. I'm glad the city is taking steps to clean up this place, I only wish they had done it before this." and went on to say "I hope they fine the crap out of these bastards."

It took us some time to find a person who takes shopping carts as a means to get groceries home and asked them what they thought about the ordinance. "I think the government meddles too much in our lives, we're poor as it is and the government stands to just make us poorer and regulate everything we do and make it hard on us 'little people'." When asked if they take carts back they said "I always take carts back, maybe not as soon as they would like, but I do".

In fact, that may well be true for some people. In going around the square later on, we where surprised to see this citizen taking an empty cart back to Tops. This was taken out of our car window as we where coming out of the square, it's looking down main streets sidewalk looking toward Tops.

Speaking of photos in this article, people that we talked to at stores declined their photo taken and we only show this photo because the person in it isn't easily identifiable.

In closing, the stores have until April 8th Council meeting to discuss with them or the City Clerk any changes they would like to the ordinance. We urge anyone who has strong feelings on the issue either way to attend council meetings to voice their opinions on this or any other issue. Although we remain neutral on the cart issue, we strongly support citizens to get involved in shaping the future of the city.

Discuss your views on the issue in The Bradford Forum.

Average user rating

10/10   (1 vote)

Display 1 of 1 comments