Cleanliness is next to Godliness

I’d heard the urban legends about the cleanliness of Disney. 

Spotless streets, with messes cleaned up immediately.

I’ve considered it unlikely that with hundreds of thousands of milling guests, these rumours could be true.

Tuesday this week, I confirmed this legend.

I’ve become so used to refuse layden urban centres, littered with homeless encampments and trash, that I had given up believing cleanliness was possible after a certain population density.

Disney restored my faith in the possible, and enlightened me as to how amazing a consumer riddled fun factory could be.

Pristine trash cans every fifty feet, never full, never dirty, and no sign of the people tending them.

I observed a popcorn spill on the sidewalk as we walked into a shop, and minutes later as we walked out, as if by magic it had been cleaned, and no sign of the cleaners in sight…

faerie magic.

Years ago Malcom Gladwell taught me about the broken window theory, and about how when you keep something tidy, it tends to stay that way through a culture of order.

It obviously takes a colossal amount of resources to accomplish Disney-caliber cleanliness, but perhaps it is time to take more pride in our own municipalities, allocate the necessary resources, and celebrate our own cities.

I’ve heard similar rumours about Japan. That will be our next destination to check out.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.