Recycle Everything, But Not One Can For Crackheads!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Regular readers know what a fanatical recycler I am. I actually dry out used tea bags, rip them open, and throw the used up tea grounds into my flower beds or (if I am at my girlfriend's house) in her flower bed. My girlfriend Megan has become accustomed to the fact her windowsill will constantly be full of tea bags that are drying out.

Despite the fact I recycle almost everything, there is one item I won't place in my recycling bins. And, oddly enough, it's one of the most recyclable items of all...

Aluminum cans! I make sure they get recycled, but I won't set them out with the other recyclables. I don't want crackheads and alcoholic chronic inebriates getting cans out of my bins and using the cans to support their habit. So I make a point of saving the cans back and giving them to worthy can-collecting causes or even (worse case scenario) throwing the cans in the trunk of my car and making sure to drop them off at a state rest stop.

You know how folks have those We Watch, We Call signs? I think that's great. Let's all watch and call 911 and 311.

And lots of folks have "Please don't litter" signs. I have one of those, on the rear of my garage, overlooking my recycle bins right where the crackheads would dig through the bins. This reminds the crackheads to clean up after themselves, and not to litter. So that's good.

But I'd like to have another little standardized sign--or maybe stickers!--which I could affix to the top of my recycle bins.

The signs would say:

NOT ONE CAN FOR CRACKHEADS.

We Watch, We Call Starts Its Own Facebook Group, Signs Available FREE At North End Hardware And 42nd Ave. Station...

Photo By John Hoff 

Active and involved NoMi residents and businesses continue to hop aboard the We Watch, We Call movement. Recently, the group started its own Facebook group, click here for a link.

Some days ago, while I was driving a truck all over the United States and settling in for the night in Missouri (I think) I received a call from the owner of North End Do It Best hardware. He told me...

The signs are available free at his store, click here for location information, and asked me to do a blog post publicizing that fact. And though it took me a couple days (because the Koenig family has been working extra hard to screw over North Minneapolis through their massive slumification counter-insurgency effort) today I got around to the task first thing in the morning. 

By the way, I love North End Hardware just because it is in North Minneapolis, and the service is friendly, and their location on Penn Ave. N. allows me to take a detour and call 911 on any prostitutes I see in the area of 27th and Penn.

By the way, what's UP with that? Why do the constant complaints of residents never seem to coalesce into enough political capital to get the hookers off Penn Ave. N. once and for all? I'm just saying.

Maybe the signs should say We Watch, We Call, We Drive Around So We Can Watch And Call Even More.

Addendum: Word reaches me the signs are also available free at 42nd Ave. Station. 

And, as always, the signs are available at the Folwell Neighborhood Office at 1206 37th Ave. N., open 9-4 M-F.