ugly st john's

sitting here at work listening to two coworkers talk about how ugly this city is. how ugly this end of the whole island is. the city is covered in weeds. no one cuts the grass or tends the green spaces. there are weeds coming out of curbs and the bottoms of buildings. one of these coworkers is moving back west, where he is from. he says there are no jobs here and after giving it a fair 5 years it just hasn't worked out.
i have to say that i agree (about the dumpiness). this city is extremely dumpy. even the little patches of grass beside parking lots and in the roadways are untended, full of dandelions and weeds. how hard would it be to put together a city works department? oh wait - i think they have one. well here's an idea, how about getting them to actually do useful things. the highways and roads are full of cracks and potholes - the cracks i can understand from the rock freezing and shifting, but the potholes could really be fixed. buy some weed eaters and lawn mowers and get at it. the lawns at the schools aren't even mowed. just covered in weeds. don't these people take any pride in their city? how do the kids feel going to school in what look like abandoned buildings, with windows boarded up and dandelion lawns? i'm bitter today. can anyone tell?