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Citizen complaint of the day: Getting tired of walking the neighbor's trash back across the street
By adamg on Mon, 07/14/2014 - 6:57pm
A fed-up Beacon Hill resident complains that a lady across Revere Street keeps walking across the street with her trash and leaving it for the trash guys in front of the resident's home:
We moved her trash back to her address, but would appreciate your intervention.
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Comments
Somebody needs a hobby!
Somebody needs a hobby!
Disgusting
It appears from the picture in the other complaint that the voliator is a real slob. Perhaps we should move her accross the street from you. From time to time those paper bags (say in rain) burst open and someone needs to pick it up and you can be sure the violator is volunteering.
photo
Ah, if this is the picture from the complaint, I take my comment below back.
Paper may be more 'eco', but seriously, not for your trash in the city. If you care that much, get a barrel.
Technically not from the complaint, but
Appears to be from the same person. And the same person's name is called out in both complaints.
https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/reports/53b6b8f70882cf0304005f61
According to UHub commenters,
According to UHub commenters, anyone who isn't willing to pick their neighbors' trash up off the street is lazy.
Ticket!
All trash has to be in trash bags, and all recycling in clear bags. This mess should get a ticket no matter which side of the street it is on...
Thus the preemptive complaint
An inspector would see this and ticket the property that it is next to, not the one it came from.
The inspectors aren't dumb
The inspectors are entirely hip to the "plant your problem in front of your neighbor's house" trick. They don't just presumptively ticket the house where the trash is located: I've seen them pull on gloves, dig through the trash for evidence as to who left it there, photograph the evidence, and ticket appropriately.
Pickers or rats can make this an issue
If the woman puts it out the night before. It becomes a task of cleaning up her trash whenever someone (or some animal) rips it enough so that the trash doesn't make it to the truck.
Yeah I never put my trash out
Yeah I never put my trash out the night before. Everyone else does, but I've seen the rats.
Trash out early
The rat problem stems in part from the fact that the city not only doesn't enforce the state sanitary code, but actually publishes misinformation on the city website. By law, trash can't be put out before the day of pick up (i.e., after midnight); the city is actually encouraging people to put it out any time after 5PM the night before: http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/wastereduction/regulations.asp
Also, weirdly, the city says you have to put your trash out by 7:00 am; I'm not clear at all what policy objective is served by preventing people from carrying out their trash as late as they want, up to the very last minute when they hear the truck.
Also, weirdly, the city says
The probably want to prevent people from slowing down the truck by asking them to wait while they drag their trash out, or from putting their trash out after the truck has already left, and leaving it there all week.
Simple drafting would fix that:
The city could just as easily say, "Trash must be out and ready before the truck arrives, which may be at any time after 7:00 a.m., depending upon the route and neighborhood." As it is, it just looks dumb.
If the lady isn't storing her
If the lady isn't storing her trash properly, then this becomes an issue because most of the time ISD gives the ticket to the building where the trash is found, and doesn't open the trash to see whose trash it really is. My building has received three tickets this spring because of our neighbors' trash. You can appeal it (we're 2-0 with one appeal outstanding), but it gets to be a pain in the neck that could be resolved if ISD took the time to check whose trash it was before issuing a ticket.
Sub-gripe: the three tickets we received were all past due notices issued before the 30 days for payment elapsed and where we never received the initial ticket. Is this happening to anyone else?
Tickets for Neighbors trash
We have gotten a few in BH in the past, maybe 2 years ago. I would be the one who appealed, but I am not taking part of a day for a $25 ticket. I guess we have better neighbors now.
ISD will search trash for names - I have picked up tickets with the names of people in my building. Can't say how reliabily they do it though.
Adam, I *love* these
Adam, I *love* these
Do we know?
Do we know what time the 'across the street lady' is putting the trash out?
Maybe she's putting it out early in the morning and she thinks she's helping the trash guys so they don't have to cross the street to get her 1 bag? (and that's assuming she's only got 1 bag)
There's so much we don't know in this complaint. Just like Citizen's Connect hasn't been given the whole story either.
What she thinks is irrelevant.
Who cares what she thinks. The law is perfectly clear.
Is there any law saying you
Is there any law saying you can't put trash in front of your neighbor's house on trash day?
What if it would be convenient for the trash collectors, like if there's parked cars on your side of the street but not on the other side?
What about houses that are in back, down a private way, so they don't have any street frontage at all?
I can't find one
Surprisingly enough, although I've always been told this is illegal, I can't seem to find an applicable law.
The state law is 105 CMR 600 etc. There are probably City of Boston municipal regulations about trash, but the City website pretty much never cites the applicable laws or regs, and they're hard to find.
Agreed
Which is why you'll see I pulled back on my original post via response higher up to the photo.
Just goes to show
..that money can't buy a clue.
If intelligence were involved, Einstein would have been a billionaire.
Naah it's mainly a kind of OCD tenacity, sinking teeth into money grubbing until the treasure trove is attained.
?
Honestly, what are you even talking about?
This could happen literally
This could happen literally anywhere, just because it's Beacon Hill doesn't mean it warrants any discussion of the income of the parties involved. Beacon Hill also has a numbr of poor college kids as well.
Poor college kids?
Please. If they are in college and living in Beacon Hill, they are most certainly not poor. Plus, "poor college kids" is laughable. It's an insult to those who actually live in poverty, and aren't just some whiny, entitled brat going to class at noon in their pajamas hungover.
If mom and day pay for your
If mom and day pay for your apartment or your magical loans pay for it and you don't work to afford it without either, you're "poor." I'm tired of running into people who want to be worshiped because of the neighbourhood they live in but do nothing to earn it. Same in this case. Live in Beacon Hill != high income.
Huh?
First, who are "mom and day"? Second, what the hell are you talking about? Calm down, dude.
Beacon Hill has plenty of Section 8, too.
Beacon Hill has Section 8 housing, elderly housing, specialty housing for HIV+ tenants, etc.
Check your assumptions.
What assumptions?
I think you meant to respond to the person I responded to. No worries. Mistakes happen.
Talking?
Why don't you try talking to her?
What would you say?
What would you say to her that she doesn't already know?
You deal with it at the lowest level first...
...before you complain to the city.
Really?
If someone were to steal your car, would you deal with it yourself by trying to talk to the thief, or would you take it to the city?
And have they addressed this with the alleged offender...
...face to face? Of course not! No one talks things out anymore. We just complain to city officials to come hold our hands.
I was wondering when this
I was wondering when this would come up. Thanks for coming through. If only they would talk to their neighbor, everybody could join hands and sing "Kumbaya", and Boston would become a true paradise on earth. Because if there's one thing Bostonians react well to, it's when their neighbors tell them what not to do.
I sense you're being a wise ass...
And it's unnecessary. I've brought things up to my neighbors plenty of times. Not once did they bite my head off. And if they ever do, then fine. I tried. It just takes one not depending on the nanny state to help them, growing a pair (no sexism intended), and facing someone to try to work things out. The alternative is being a coward and whining to the city online.
Wow, you figured that out?
You must be pretty clever. In spite of your incredible success with this approach, I find it interesting that UHub is nonetheless filled with stories about Boston residents whose neighbors basically told them to go get fucked.
Also, some people have jobs, and lives, and families, and better things to do than spend some time trying to convince some worthless piece of shit that the laws apply to them, too.
Ok, I see the problem...
It's reading comprehension. I'll break this down for you into simpler terms: "Not once did they bite my head off. And if they ever do, then fine. I tried." Is that hard to understand? Yeah, sometimes people tell others to "get fucked". You seem like the type of person who would feed into that and then make the problem worse. Just state the issue, and itf they're rude, smile and walk away. Then use other resources to address the problem.
As for your statement that people who have jobs and lives and families are too busy to act civilly toward each other, I can only say how sad it is that you live like that. People like you make this city less enjoyable to live in.
It's reading comprehension. I
Actually, no. It's nice that you attempt to deal with this on a person-to-person level, but nobody is obligated to do this before contacting the city.
You mentioned before that you helped a neighbor who was having trouble with your trash, and that's great. That's what neighbors should do. But there's a big difference between "having trouble with your trash" and leaving your trash all over the sidewalk in front of someone else's house. The person who does that (or the person who always saves spaces in front of their house year-round, or the person who has loud parties late at night, or the person who smashes their neighbor's patio table with a rock) has already shown themselves to be selfish, clueless or both, and some feel that there is very little benefit to be gained by attempting to reason with such people.
I never said I was too busy to act civilly, but as I explained above, I feel no obligation to attempt to engage with jerks or idiots.
Well, since I don't live in Boston anymore, I'll take that as a compliment.
"Being a coward?"
What the hell is there to work out? Someone's breaking the law and being a general nuisance. We pay taxes for the city to take care of stuff like that for us; it's not my job to enforce the sanitary code.
If someone steals your car, do you try to work it out or do you call the police?
I
Nice try...
...but it's apples and oranges. My neighbors had a hard time tying up their trash bags about a year ago. One day I saw one of them outside on trash day. I introduced myself, and very politely explained the issue. I feel like they wanted their initial reaction to be egotistical and knee jerk, but my non-confrontational demeanor seemed to disarm them. Problem solved, bas placed out neatly and tied ever since. I'd say that's a far cry from having my car stolen. So, what's the moral of the story here? You should put your "I PAY TAXES AND BLAH BLAH BLAH GIMME GIMME GIMME" attitude in check and perhaps engage with those who share this city with you instead of complaining to the city every time someone looks at you crooked.
Apples and oranges yourself.
There's a world of difference between, on the one hand, putting out trash improperly, not knowing that it is causing a problem, and other, going out of your way (by walking your improperly-bagged trash across the street to hide the fact that you're responsible. In the former case, of course, constructive conversation is the way to go. But by the time you see someone deliberately obscuring evidence, you can safely assume that you're no longer dealing with a reasonable person.
I dare say
litter is unappealing though not as unappealing as some of the heathens allowed to inhabit this fine neighborhood. Lovey and I are moving to a more civilized area they call City Point.
I'm off to the Newburyport area next month...
This city is becoming intolerable. Everyone has an issue and an axe to grind, no one wants to be a community. It's townies vs. yuppies, wealthy vs. middle class (oh, what... There is no middle class in Boston anymore). You say hello to someone as you walk by and you get a snarl or they make a show of looking away.
I'm sorry you're having that experience
Pretty much everyone with whom I cross paths either says hello or warmly answers my greeting.
I'm sure glad...
.. I don't live in whatever part of town he lives in.
This city is not "becoming"
This city is not "becoming" anything, it always has and always will have a mix of privilege, civility, compassion, and willingness to engage. Just like the Newburyport area. Best of luck to you.