Solano Real Estate Scene: Leave it better than you found it

My dad constantly reminded me and my six siblings to be courteous. He would teach us manners every night at the dinner table. He would pass the ketchup but not let go of it until the kid said please and thank you. The other thing that he was adamant about was leaving it better than he found it. At times, my dad would be embarrassing to us kids as we became teens and were concerned about what people thought of us. When Dad took us golfing at Golden Gate Park, he would always rake the sand traps, replace divots and repair his ball mark on the green plus one more and always pick up trash around the park. “Every litter bit hurts” was his mantra and as kids we witnessed him constantly picking up garbage wherever we were to a point that I remember my mom at times getting mad about his behavior, which may have appeared to be obsessive, but he believed in setting an example. He loved the Russian River and every summer we would go up there two or three weekends per month to my grandpa’s house on the river, and there, too, my dad would spend a lot of the time making sure he left the river better than he found it. In his 80s, he worked as a marshal at Windsor Golf Course and Rooster Run and would always pick up trash, and for a couple of years volunteered to remove poison oak in locations where golfers were at risk. A strong, long-lasting real estate market in Solano County will require better schools, lower crime rates and beautiful neighborhoods, parks and shopping districts. It is vital that our streets remain clean and our parks remain pristine and that we teach our youth to take care of the environment. We cannot solve the world’s problems, but if everybody just picks up after themselves and picks up one piece of garbage off the street once a week, we can have a clean community forever. Oops, bad news for generations X, Y and Z; looks like us baby boomers may not be leaving the country better than we found it. The bottom line is the country’s future depends on the young people to work together on leaving it better than they found it. It will not be hard to improve in California over the next 50 years. We are leaving $26 trillion in debt, significant homelessness and 60% of the population has less than $1,000 in the bank. Both parties agree that rebuilding our middle class should be our No. 1 priority to sustain the American Dream.