The 12 tons - 24,000 pounds! - of trash and junk was there. It had not been cleaned up by the City of Baltimore or whoever picks up trash in Baltimore. It had not been cleaned up by local residents (except any who participated in this clean-up effort ... probably quite a few). If "the tired image of our failing urban cores" is true, fix it! Get city governments to do their damned jobs instead of snarking and sniping at people who did what those city governments should have done!