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Allstonians organize to turn Allston Rat City into Allston Rock City
By adamg on Mon, 08/01/2022 - 11:23am
Reclaim Rock City is a group of people in Allston who are tired of all the rats and have started organizing to figure out how to fight the little beasts. They're holding a community fair at Ringer Park on Saturday with "free local music, games, sports, poetry, freebies, and collaborative art" along with the chance to talk anti-vermin strategies. They also have a survey.
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Comments
NYC has rat hunting clubs....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/19/new-york-city-rat-proble...
Maybe we'd have fewer rats in
Maybe we'd have fewer rats in this city if we had anything resembling a cohesive and modern waste management and disposal system? Trash policies vary, often from one street to the next: from the big plastic bins, to having residents toss trash in aging private dumpsters that often leak and aren't always emptied on schedule, to just piling bags of garbage directly on the curb and hoping rats/trash pickers don't cut them open and spill refuse everywhere.
We could install municipal dumpsters that get emptied every other day, like many other cities in the world, if we chose to. We seem to prefer wading in filth and vermin.
Pretty simple
Have a free city curbside composting program, with strong latching buckets that are replaced if damaged, then fine people who don't use it (or otherwise fail to divert their food waste into secure composting).
When we lived in Allston we were the only ones on our street without a big rat problem in our trash—and probably the only ones who composted. We did have to reinforce our compost bin with hardware cloth, but that was sufficient.
It’s the secure latching part that matters
If people religiously disposed of their trash in rat proof containers the problem would be considerably reduced.
But that’s unlikely to happen, realistically.
But that’s unlikely to happen
That's why you have to fine the people who don't do it. But that, unfortunately, is also unlikely to happen in Boston.
and Allston is full of
itinerant student renters and absentee landlords who see fines as either optional or just the price of doing business. good luck getting anyone to pay or change their behavior.
Agreed on both counts
But I feel like there's more chance of having strong, latching compost buckets than of getting people to replace all those big wheelie bins with new robust lids of a new design -- and actually keeping them latched, etc.
(if they cooperate at all)
Maybe if they want more rock ...
someone should reopen The Rat.
What's the pied piper know about amplifiers?
They can get rid of the rats, sure, but I'll be stunned if rock and roll comes back.
From the purge of DIY basements back in '13 to the city putting the kibosh on Allston DIY fest, to the Sound Museum on the way out if it's not gone already, I am left to wonder: can they come up with anything louder than a silent disco? And no, two punks with acoustic guitars does not rock and roll make.
For sure, loud music can be imported to Allston - to Paradise or Brighton Music Hall or O'Briens - but it's getting awfully hard to make there.
you're not wrong
but I was recently told by a much younger coworker that Allston basement shows are still happening! Maybe not as much as they used to, but they're not totally gone. It just seems that we're too old to be in the know anymore.
At least Studio 52 is hanging on in the new location, I know there was some talk of relocating the Sound Museum (with the help of the developer), but I'll believe that when I see it.
oof
Allston hasn't been "rock city" for a few decades. No shade thrown, but its Little Korea now. We need to recognize this and move on. The 90s/00's Menino leadership pushed all musicians, artists and spaces out of town. Thankfully, little korea at least keeps the chain stores out.