RIVER RANT: Ugly scene hiding below scenic Riverside Drive

They don’t make those Pabst cans the way they used to. I found some very curious items while cleaning trash recently on Riverside Drive just east of the at Atlantic Coast Line Bridge. The homes on Riverside Drive in that neighborhood are very expensive because the view from that hilltop down to the James River is amazing. When […]

April 18, 2011; 3:42 AM • by Phil Riggan

They don’t make those Pabst cans the way they used to. I found some very curious items while cleaning trash recently on Riverside Drive just east of the at Atlantic Coast Line Bridge.

The homes on Riverside Drive in that neighborhood are very expensive because the view from that hilltop down to the James River is amazing. When biking or driving by, one can get a sense of how fantastic that view is, but when walking that area, it is all-to-easy to see how people can mistreat that scenic byway.

I found many beer bottles and cans, mostly recent vintage. But there was a few really old items. Notice the pull-tab Pabst can. Production of pull-tabs stopped in the late 1970s….how long has that can been there? There was an old pull-tab Budweiser can too — lingering from a party 30 years ago?

Another curious alcoholic find was multiple “airplane” liquor bottles and cough syrup bottles. I’d venture to say that some neighborhood kids have been sneaking stuff out of their parents cabinets. If you are brave enough to sneak alcohol, at least be brave enough to clean up after yourselves….

I also found an old cassette tape, a broken pocket knife, a half-dozen tires (which I couldn’t remove) and several plastic bottles and aluminum cans — way more than my bucket could handle that day.

All of that trash was/is just within 10 feet of the roadway. I didn’t clean on anyone’s personal property (though my bucket is sitting on someone’s land in the top photo). The area wasn’t loaded with visible garbage, but there was enough to notice. I not judging, but I lived in one of those immaculate homes on Riverside Drive, I’d be the first down the hill to make sure that my roadside, my neighborhood, my view of the James River was unblemished. And we should all help them.

April 18, 2011 3:42 AM 0