There are several initiatives being pushed in town right now encouraging localresidents to help clean the city [of Key West]. There is the Pick up Butts program, the Chambers "Clean and Green" program, among others. My problem with these initiatives is that none of them offers any solutions to the litter problem.

I challenged my cousin Danny Toppino and my good friend Chris Belland, who are co-chairs of the Clean and Green Program, that I would help clean and donate $1,000 to the effort if they could produce 10 litter citations, at least one for tossing cigarette butts, and that a fine was paid. I'm still waiting.

I walk or ride my bicycle around Old Town just about every morning, and within five minutes I encounter the endless line of butts and the other disgusting litter, the black spots on the sidewalk that is chewing gum. Why do we allow this I know that the police officers and sheriff's deputies have to see this happening; I do many times each day. Maybe they do not enforce the law because they also abuse it. I have witnessed on more than a few occasions law officers flipping butts out of their vehicles or throwing them on the ground and stepping on them, many times in full view of a trash can. (Why are they allowed to smoke in city and county vehicles Another topic for another time.) You can ride down Duval Street and always see employees standing in front of their shops smoking and tossing their butts in the gutter -- again standing next to a trash can. Pardon my French, but what the hell is wrong with these people

Why should we clean up after these inconsiderate people

Obviously, my big rant is with the cigarette butts, but the same pertains to all litter.

I don't want to complain without offering solutions, even if they are the obvious. Other towns have levied taxes, as high as $5 per pack, to subsidize cleanup.

Or, how about just enforce the law. "... Any person who dumps litter ... is guilty of a noncriminal infraction, punishable by a civil penalty of $50. In addition, the court may require the violator to pick up litter or perform other labor commensurate with the offense committed."

This seems like a no-brainier, with the number of butts I see on the street times a $50 fine, we could keep the town pristine, have the culprits pick up their mess, and probably eliminate the parking meters.

I challenge Chief Mauldin and Sheriff Roth to uphold the law and write citations -- we are way past warnings -- and for the judges to levy the maximum penalties. Maybe then we could become paradise again instead of a giant asphalt ashtray.

Paul Toppino
Key West