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Citizen complaint of the day: Scavengers turn South End street into a garbage dump
By adamg on Fri, 01/03/2020 - 9:29am
A disgusted citizen filed a 311 complaint this morning:
Scavengers ripped open residential trash all along the entirety of odd numbered side of Worcester Square.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
"Scavengers"
Doesn't that just conjure up warm memories of some distant Dickensian dystopia?
organized racoons?
they do wear masks.
Mayor Walsh has been sleeping
Mayor Walsh has been sleeping at the wheel when it comes down to trash pick ups and litter in the street’s throughout Boston’s neighborhoods.
Billions of tax dollars the city has collected over in recent years , still they can’t hire a few new fresh hacks to clean the street’s .
East Boston is a mess, walk down Bennington street near central Square , walk through the street’s from day square to central sq , are the city of Boston street sweepers still on Christmas vacation .
EB has a Paris Street, but sadly is not Paris, France
The Maire is not sending anyone to pick up the litter in your arrondissement. Aside from street sweeping day it is up to you and your neighbors to pick up the trash in front of votre maison. Quelle domage
huh?
So it's the city problem that you make a mess?
This scavenger problem aside - if there is stuff on your sidewalk, clean it up. Stop making things someone else's responsibility.
It’s the City’s problem
that they don’t pick up litter off the streets and sidewalks no matter how it gets there.
Check out your latest real estate tax bill. Where’s the money going?
Certain neighborhoods get cleaned daily.
The rubbish contractors make more of a mess than anyone and are not held responsible for picking up litter that doesn’t end up in the trucks.
Walk around the Seaport, you’d be hard pressed to find a cigarette butt in the gutters or sidewalk.
No cigarette butts or trash
No cigarette butts or trash in the Seaport? I wish that were so. I live there and just picked up and hauled a 13 gallon bag of beer cans, cardboard, fast food litter, plastic bottles and yes, cigarette butts across the Channel this morning left on the sidewalk and Congress St. bridge. I could have filled 5 more bags if I had them. The city does not sweep up sidewalks or bridges (and they dont shovel any of our bridges, either) andfor some reason, most of the local businesses and condo buildings don’t bother/care to clean up even when there’s trash or vomit in front of their building, which happens every day.
If the city can issue out
If the city can issue out gift cards in exchange for guns from gangbangers they should approach willing and able homeless people who are seeking employment let them clean the streets and the city should give them gift cards ( restaurants, dept stores, etc)
In East Boston 60% of
In East Boston 60% of property owners are absentee landlords , it’s literally becoming an Allston. The owners live elsewhere in places like Brookline, Newton, Duxbury, Martha’s Vinyards, I found an LLC for one property registered to someone in Manhattan, NY , you think these owners are going to hire people to shovel or clean up the trash in their yards or take out the garbage properly to the curb weekly, I don’t think so..
I don't make a mess. I clean
I don't make a mess. I clean up other people's messes in my neighborhood. But there's a limit to how much time I can spend on it. I can't clean the whole city, but the city can.
Guess who has the contract for Boston
New Contractor for Boston trash after Marty replaced Mumbles:
https://teamstersjointcouncil10.com/teamsterswork-local-25-capitol-waste/
The city does nothing
But it is the city’s responsibility to crack down on scavengers who rip open people’s garbage and scatter it all over the sidewalk. It’s also not the fault of the residents that they put their garbage neatly out during designated times, only to find it scattered all in front of their property as they hurry out the door on their way to work. There seems to be no ramifications for people who do this - no penalties or fines, and the police never lifts a finger to stop them either. I am sure that if they started to crack down, people would at least be more careful, or here’s a thought - they could be required to carry their own garbage bags and replace whatever bags they decide to destroy as they systematically go through the neighborhood, spewing trash everywhere. The city simply should not allow this to happen.
I no longer live in the south end, but this happened every garbage day without exception, and all of my neighbors were fed up but couldn’t stop it. I believe it is also a big contributor to the rat population.
moved them out of Methadone Mile
and now these folks are up as far as Copley Square. As many services as are available in the BMC area it appears that no one ever suggested that needles be disposed of safely, that trash be dumped in a receptacle or that the individuals who frequent these life saving services be asked to consider something other than the driving force of addiction. recoverymattersma.org
"no one ever suggested that needles be disposed of safely"
What????
I don't think little Stevie from Quincy give a flying F about where he disposes of his needle after he boots.
Evidence and Facts Matter
The latest guide on evidence-based treatment of substance use disorders: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatme...
I see that our own little moralizing denialist is back with a link to a fact-free blog. Sigh. Plenty of research and facts out there from the state and the CDC and actual addiction researchers around the world that show that addiction is a medical condition that requires both pharmaceutical and behavioral interventions for the greatest public health impact.
Unintended consequence of the
Unintended consequence of the Bottle Bill.
I've been saying that for years
Growing up in East Boston in the 60s and 70s I never saw a garbage picker in my life until the bottle bill was enacted in the early 80s. They came out of the woodwork at that point and their numbers have only increased. I realize there are other reasons for it as well, but in this day and age of recycling the bottle bill is outdated and unneeded. Let's go back to "no deposit, no return".
Yeah, it's really weird that
Yeah, it's really weird that we pay the public 5c per bottle to bring them in, while also paying a recycling truck to pick them up. It's not exactly an efficient system. And if the goal is to keep the environment clean, encouraging people to rip open trash bags isn't helping.
Trash cans?
I've always been a renter and my landlords have always provided trash cans for trash. Is it not requirement of owners? I've only seen trash put out in plastic bags in the South end. I live in Roxbury and virtually every household puts their trash out in barrels.
There isn't a place to store
There isn't a place to store barrels in most South end buildings. Ours has absolutely no storage outside thats common and what's there couldn't fit barrels. Besides I've seen people dump out bags of trash on the sidewalk for a single can, a barrel would just be one more piece of debris to roll into the st which I'm sure the city would fine homeowners for.
City needs to crack down on the source, scavenging, instead of fining owners who follow all the rules. No matter what time I leave my house on trash days, someone different is digging through the trash. Took my dog out randomly at 4am last week and there was a pair tearing through every bag on the st. When I left for work at 8 a different group was digging through. Not really hard to catch the culprits in action, it's literally constant. Even if I quit my job and stop sleeping I couldn't combat the problem, there's too many people.
We need the city or state to step in and do something. Personally I propose getting rid of deposits/refunds. It made sense thirty years ago when nobody recycled, but now with curbside it makes no sense anymore. If thers no value in the trash thers no reason to tear open bags.
All the brownstones in the
All the brownstones in the South End are somewhat attached to each other , therefore trash barrels are too big to haul out through the basement up through the elegant foyer , so it’s easy for the home owners to place trash in the barrel in their back yards, but when it’s time to throw trash out they will grab trash bag from barrel and carry it up through their basement to foyer and out to the front door instead of dragging the barrels out.
Barrels?
I was under the impression that you were supposed to put your trash in some kind of barrel. Is that just a rule for some neighborhoods?
From the city website --
HOW TO DISPOSE OF TRASH AND RECYCLING
Place trash in a container with a lid or use a sturdy trash bag. If you use a barrel, it can be any size up to 96 gallons. If you use a barrel that's bigger than 32 gallons, there must be a grab bar on the barrel so that our trucks can lift it up.
Place recycling on the curb in a City-issued, recycling cart. Contact BOS:311 to request a new recycling cart, but keep in mind they are not available until March.
Do not use small plastic and paper bags from market or convenience stores for trash or recycling on your curb.
You can turn a trash can into a recycling bin with a sticker from 311. The bin should be smaller than 32 gallons, and needs to have a lid.
Timing
You can place trash and recycling out as early as 5 p.m. on the night before your collection day, but we urge you to place your trash out in the morning. This reduces spillage and scavenging.
But how can I blame others
But how can I blame others for my laziness?
Easy to throw stones in your
Easy to throw stones in your glass house. Most buildings in the city do not have storage for barrels. That rule cited above is for large buildings 6 units or more, which excludes most brownstones in Boston. I'd looove a barrel, had them in Dorchester and it was great, also had a shed and backyard for said barrels the rest of the week. If the city would let me leave a barrel on the curb all week is happily oblige. Otherwise there is no place in 90% of the buildings in the south end for storing them. So either we add 100 Sq ft of outdoor storage to every brownstone or maybe we do something about people ripping holes in trash that's left out on the curb according to ordinance.
They can’t leave the big blue
They can’t leave the big blue bins the city provides nor their personal barrels outside in front of their brownstones , it will lose the charm and beauty of the neighborhood .
No, they can't leave them
No, they can't leave them there because there's no level ground between the sidewalk and the building.
Trash should be secured in bins and barrels
Not thrown out on the sidewalk in a flimsy plastic bag.