Trolleyed

This is one of those posts written to get the thought out of my head.

Abandoned shopping trolleys are urban clutter that speaks about the area it's found in.

An abandoned shopping trolley could mean any one or combination of the following:

• Can't afford a car
• Don't care about minor theft where commercial entities are the victim
• Bored kids live here
• Not my problem, it'll get cleaned up sooner or later
• The coin in the top is worth losing to get my shopping home without carrying it. What the hell I'll take a friend, we'll two trolley and plug them together so we don't even lose the coins

I suspect that abandoned trolleys are one of the things often targeted under zero tolerance urban management for these reasons. Getting rid of them immediately increases the feeling that the neighbourhood you're in is looked after and that the people in it actually care about where they live.

This is why it bothers me when I walk past 6 of these on my way to work in a neighbourhood which isn't exactly renowned for being wealthy but isn't exactly a hellhole either. Neglect of any sort bothers me.