There is not much in Shortsville, New York. The town is known for being nothing more than a desolate hole in the countryside. There are no startups, no major corporations, and no minor corporations even. The number of small businesses in the town are in the low teens. What is in Shortsville, however, is a stream. More of a river, depending on what time you visit. In the spring, the town hosts its annual white water regatta. For one weekend the town has a purpose. For one weekend, the town is alive.
Shortsville is well established as a small town. It is also well established as having cheap real estate. The overabundance of cheap housing means that people from all over the greater Rochester area flock to our town when they lose their jobs. The cost of living is very low, and many people who live in this town are the sort of people you would expect to see in a small town in the middle of nowhere. That’s right, the town is almost completely overrun by rednecks. As you can imagine, they don’t care about the environment. They send cows to bathe and poop in the stream. They litter and throw their waste in the water. No joke, I once witnessed someone pull a toilet out of the stream. A toilet. It’s a disgrace. And yet the stream represents all that humanity is and will be.
Yes it’s a cesspool of grime and dirt, but there are real strides being made to clean it up. Like I mentioned, cleanup crews have been making efforts to remove garbage from the river. The mayor recently had a beautiful trail put in, with signs to educate people on the local ecosystem, and workout stations to help people stay active. Through the Adopt-A-Stream program the local Boy Scout troop has adopted the stream and performs quarterly checkups on the stream, looking for things like invasive species and checking the pH levels. It will take some time, but in the future, like humanity, this stream will be cleaned up.