"People critique The City of Owen Sound, not because they dislike it, but because they care about it and want it to be better." - Richard MacDonald, an engaged citizen

From now until next year's municipal election, we're going to be posting stories inviting you to look at situations in our community and consider ways to make them better. You can natter on Facebook if you like, but we'd really like to see you get involved.

These might be things you take to City Hall, or ask of City committees or Council candidates, but they may just as well be things you take up in conversations with property owners, or gather a little neighbourhood committee around.

Take the lead of Neighbourwoods North, Owen Sound Waste Watchers, or the Caremongers. The people who started these and the Good Food Box, the Tom Thomson Trail, the Art Banner Project, the Festival of Northern Lights, the Community Waterfront Heritage Centre, the Pride parade, Safe n' Sound, the Climate Action Team, O'SHaRE and all the clubs and teams in town were just Owen Sounders like you.

Let's get started with a little intersection of public and private property - the former Bayview School. (And no, they won't all be garbage-related!)

We posted the pictures above on Owen Sound Hubbub the other day, and people focused on the doggie do. I took the second photo after a fire left that melted mess of plastic, and I thought of what it might have done to the trees on that side of 6th St, never mind the wooden staircase or the school itself.

This was a salt storage box for the Bluewater Board of Education, I think, used for the tarmac and the stairs leading up from 6th St. East to the schoolyard. After the public garbage receptacle was removed from the bottom of those stairs, people walking their dogs in the area started leaving their “doggie do” bags in the blue box, then around it, assuming someone was eventually going to empty it. Pop cans, a lot of used fireworks, wrappers, coffee cups - even a chair – months of refuse piled up.

I can always count on a steady supply of beer cans and liquor bottles for the Junior Optimists by that staircase, and I have contacted the City to remove an interior door, a shopping cart, bike wheels and lawnmower parts, and they were all picked up quickly.

There are several spots, in and outside the school fence, where I have picked up or reported syringes, smashed liquor bottles and huge fireworks. Once I reported on the needles and garbage at the top of the hill on the north side of the property, and a fence was put up right away –  the garbage still safely behind it!

If you care about your home and want to help make it better, chances are there are other people who feel the same. A new organization or a one-off project, we'll be happy to link you up with resources and mentors and willing neighbours.

Start where you're at, and let's get at it!