Don't trash the cans, he says
Back Bay denizen Carpundit breaks ranks with the Back Bay Architectural Commission and supports the large, solar-powered trash can/compactor thingees the commission thinks do not fit in with the resplendance that is Copley Square:
... The small and rare cans now scattered around the Back Bay often have piles of trash around them, especially on weekends when the Back Bay is crowded and the trash collectors are off duty or asleep somewhere. It would be nice to have more cans, and cans that hold more. ...
John Daley wonders how you design a trash can that Ben Franklin would use:
Old pamphlets and broken kites, I'm guessing.
If they can't be made to fit in, off they'll go to Hyde Park; Jamaica Plain; and South Boston and the Back Bay will just have to dispose of its trash the old fashioned way. ...
Ed. snark note: And the old fashioned way being to leave heaping piles of plastic bags in the public alleys, where they then get ripped to shreds by rats, dogs and homeless people?
| 
| 
BBAC and trash bins
These are the same folks that complained about the color of the awnings at the new Taj Hotel (the former Ritz). And for years, held up the memorial to the 9 firefighters that died in the Hotel Vendome fire. While I support some oversight to preserve the flavor of the Back Bay, the BBAC has too much power and too little common sense.
The BBAC certainly appears to prefer trash spilling all over rather than some big box that would actually hold the trash. Having too few trash cans that are too small is so much better since it lets the trash pile up on the sidewalk to be scattered by the wind. And god forbid that the color be something that you can spy from half a block away. Did anyone ever think that the green color makes it easier for people to find when they have some trash to throw away? A trash bin that blends into the background so people cannot find it and so just drop the trash onto the sidewalk is such an attractive option. Maybe some artists could paint the big boxes with an attractive floral design like some have done to utility boxes in some communities.
BBAC (cont.)
They were also the folks who made a stink about the proposal to put additional bike racks in the area. I believe their arguement was that "there weren't any bike racks when the neighborhood was constructed" (paraphrasing). Oy vey!
BBAC - con't 2
That makes a lot of sense. Let's roll back the calendar to 1890 and preserve the entire Back Bay as it was then. Maybe we should prohibit cars from entering the Back Bay since they were not yet invented in 1890. It sure would solve the parking and pedestrian problems. And maybe it would result in a better mass transit system since all those people living in the Back Bay, especially those on the BBAC, would need to commute on the T to get home.
I suspect that the BBAC was behind the effort to round up all the sign boards this past year. Someone should remind them that signboards and handbills were the dominant form of advertisement in 1890.
The BBAC needs to develop a better sense of balance about the needs of the community with the desire to preserve the flavor of the neighborhood. Controlling trash, providing places for people to park their bikes (other than parking meters and lamp posts), and allowing businesses to prosper are much more important than the color of an awning is blue, white or ecru.
Back Bay transit in 1890 ...
might still have been mostly horse-drawn rail cars on streets. Electrification had begun only two years before.
Signs Have Long Been Banned from City Sidewalks
"Someone should remind them that signboards and handbills were the dominant form of advertisement in 1890."
The placing of signboards on public streets and sidewalks had been forbidden for many years prior to 1890.
From "An ordinance establishing the office of Superintendent of Streets, and prescribing the duties thereof; to prevent unlawful and injurious practices in the streets of the City--and in relation to Side Walks. [Passed Aug. 22, 1833]
Section 15. Be it further ordained, That if any person shall place or cause to be placed, any trunk, bale, box, crate, cask, or any package, article or thing whatsoever, on or over any part of any public street, lane, court, or alley in this city, except as is provided in the last preceding section, whether the same shall be exposed for sale there, or otherwise, and shall suffer the same to remain more than three hours after it is first placed there, or more than ten minutes after notice to remove the same, given by the Mayor, or some other person by him authorized, the person or persons so offending, shall forfeit and pay the sum of two dollars for every such offence."
No, really
I love the new barrels. They work because ... they allow you to put trash in them!
We need more of them, not less. They're bulky, but they work.
I want them in the South End, too.
Actually, can we build them big enough that everyone can put their own trash in them? That'd clean up our streets.
Worse than normal trash cans
There are a lot of things I hate about the solar-powered bins. You can always tell one's been emptied recently because there's a trail of sludge running from the sidewalk in front of it into the street. The little mailbox-like door is a bad design, and I've seen some with the handles broken off already. Mostly, though, I'm just appalled that the city would pay for such an overly-technical (and thus failure-prone) solution to a problem that, IMHO, didn't exist in the first place. I feel our city and our environment would be much better off if that money had gone toward public recycling bins. Then the green color of the bins would actually make sense.