Attached is the petition I’ve started in hopes to get the residents of the North End and Waterfront on the same page for “no trash on the streets overnight”.
[button link=”http://chn.ge/17VQm2V” size=”large” style=”info” color=”green”]Sign the Online Petition[/button]
[button link=”http://northendwaterfront.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/toni-gilardi-trash-petition.pdf” size=”medium” style=”download” color=”blue”]Download PDF Version to Print[/button]
We are heading toward a full blown health crisis if we do not take this opportunity to fix a surmounting and pressing issue. We have a unique opportunity to give the City input since they asked. Very few people showed up for the public meeting on Oct 22nd regarding the expiring City contract on Trash Collection. Those who did, did not even come close to representing the sentiment and concerns of the majority of residents who are tired of climbing over garbage to get home at night.
Everyone including the City officials and Staff complain about the same and obvious: Disease carrying rodents and infestation, trash pickers ripping open the trash bags in the middle of the night and improper storage of household trash spilling out and blowing down the Street.
All of these points have one common Cause/ Component or Antagonist, if you will, and that is allowing trash on the Streets overnight. By removing this common component the City could elevate 70 % of these problems. It is so clear and reasonable to conclude that by fixing one problem once and for all the City will actually save money. Think about it, fewer rodent calls, fewer calls to ISD, fewer calls to DPW. I’m not so naive to think this proposal will solve all of our problems but I am willing to bet that in a short time it will alleviate many. This proposal also addresses the needs of all including mothers with young children and retired residents that are not early risers. City Councilor Sal LaMattina is in full agreement and will help us anyway he can.
Please help me pass the word. I need to get as many signatures as possible. Any ideas are welcome. I will be standing outside the polls on Nov. 5th! Please feel free to pass this petition on.
My cell phone number is 617-529-4461, email is toni@bostonlandmark.com and my business address for petition drop-off is 350 Commercial Street.
This can work if we all stick together!!!
Toni Gilardi
The petition specifically reads as follows:
This Petition is to express the sentiment of The North End of Boston and surrounding area residents regarding the egregious sanitary conditions in Boston’s Urban Communities. WE THE PEOPLE…. Are in agreement that, Household trash should NEVER be placed on a City Sidewalk overnight awaiting next day pick-up by City Workers. We hereby propose that household trash be placed on a City Sidewalk between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to be promptly removed by City Workers after such time, SAME DAY PICK-UP!
If public sentiment was as profound as you write, 3 things would have already occurred: (1) more residents would have shown up to the October meeting; (2) the people that did show up would have expressed and been able to articulate this supposed overwhelmingly-supported opinion; and (3) the city would undoubtedly have already sought a remedy to the situation if the rodent concern was truly as dire as mentioned — that disease is spreading throughout our streets and in our homes via infestation.
The current system provides convenience for the elderly – a rather significant percentage of the population – as well as for residents whom work incredibly late, or early, hours. For the late-working resident, take for an example that the individual works in the restaurant industry, leaves for work around 5pm and doesn’t return home until 3 or 4am. Under the current system, the individual may dispose of their trash just before leaving for work. The suggested proposal, however, would require the individual to awaken mere hours after being able to get to sleep, simply to take out the trash within this narrow window of time.
Additionally, important questions to be asked are:
– Who shall be enforcing this — city workers? What are the times that they will have to do so? Between 5pm-5am?
– Can the workers picking up the trash come as late as 9:30-10am without disrupting other routes?
– What about the people that rely on our “trash?” (To think that this with prevent “trash pickers” from ascending unto our hallowed North End grounds is unfounded. If fact, now you’ll be running into them on your way to work in the morning . . . how unfortunate).
Respectfully,
– Skeptical
I’ve never understood these counterarguments. Seniors are generally up early, more so than the rest of us and I really don’t hear them complaining.
As for the restaurant worker that gets home at 4am, they probably have a family member / roommate / neighbor that can put out the trash in the morning.
No system is going to make 100% of people happy, but this is a good way to keep the 3 days/week pickup and dramatically keep the streets cleaner. It’s much better than the 2 days the city wants to do. With 3 days, if you miss a day because you sleep in, then it’s not so bad since you won’t have to keep your trash inside for very long until the next pickup.
Can I also suggest making an online petition as well?
https://www.change.org/start-a-petition
Is there an online version of this petition…
http://chn.ge/17VQm2V
Here you go! Thanks for your help.
Thanks!
Signed and forwarded
The original post has also been updated to show a button with the online petition too.
Thank you Toni, this is great!
Agreed! Thank you, Toni, for taking the initiative on this, as with so many other things you do to make the neighborhood better.
Anyway we can control or police these dirty human beings who don’t even live in our neighborhood, that go through our trash?
Kind of getting tired of walking by people going through trash each trash night and in the morning seeing our bags opened.
It’s unsanitary and disgusting.
You mean violate their civil rights so you can feel better about yourself by not having to be exposed to those less fortunate than yourself? Perhaps you should remind yourself of the unalienable Rights our country was founded on.
Yeah, you can start by repealing this stupid bottle & can deposit which is nothing but another tax.
Proud of my daughter, Toni Marie Gilardi for all the work she does with trying to find solutions to our neighborhood
problems ~~instead of adding to them !!!!! I wish people would stop complaining about a change for the better, and start making arrangements with neighbors to get together and get the job DONE !!
I am not an early riser, but you can bet that my trash will be put out between 6 and 9 am~~~
Inconvenient ???? A Little, but it beats the alternative !!
I just HAVE to ask the nay say~ers~~~~~Do you LIKE seeing thrash every where~~day and night???
Personal Trash should be a private event~~~Not advertised as it is now !!! I don’t understand~~can’t you negative people STOP AND THINK ???? You must like slipping on banana peels, or someone else’s last night’s supper !!
I agree with Janet 100%
This may also help prevent some of the issue with outsiders coming into the neighborhood during the night rummaging through our trash.
The problem is not “outsiders” coming into the neighborhood. The problem is effective disposal of garbage and collection of recyclables. Your intolerance and disregard for others adds little toward the conversation and subtracts from the establishment of a viable solution.
Agreed. Change is never convenient. But if we want things to improve, some form of change is necessary. I’m happy and willing to be inconvenienced for the (much) better good of the neighborhood.
I also hope that a part of any new contract is some plan to clean up the trash that falls on or street during the pick up. Either the waste company or foot patrols willneed to be accountable for trash that falls either because of ripped open bags or improperly put out trash, like all the open to boxes filled with food waste. Thanks for the initiative, Toni.
Toni & Janet you are so right about the Trash Situation. I don’t know who these people are that
disagree & give thumbs down, but I wish they would move out of the North End and maybe they
would be happier living in the City Dump.
The real problem:
When it comes to trash in the north end you have some other factors to consider:
1) Trash Barrells: The city has removed many of the barrels we used to have. They replaced some with these new recycle type bins but we don’t have nearly as many as we use to. This is why you will find so much trash floating around. Take for instance dog crap. I know many people with dogs who are so fed up with the fact the city removed all the trash bins that they now have to walk a mile just to find a barrel, that they just toss the crap on the street and figure the street sweeping machines will pick it up.
2) Street Cleaning: Do we need street cleaning on the streets with the restuarants where food is nearby and being disposed? Yes. Do we need street cleaning on every god dang street so that those who park on the street have to wake up every morning in a fret to make sure they can move thier car before 8am? Absolutely not. What this has created is (for those who park on the street) such a disdain for the people who created these awful street cleaning rules. So why should I care about some trash that people have to deal with tripping over? Those people don’t seem to care that I have to spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a year in tow fees or tickets. I’ve been living in the north end for 10 years about, and the level of hatred towards the street cleaning I’ve found impacts all the other issues… until something is done to control those who are making a moneygrab out of the street cleaning (no one someone isn’t getting a cut of the fortune City Towing is making) people aren’t going to care about much some bags being left on the curb a few hours early or late. And the city doesn’t have the budget to enforce this type of things so people will only change if they want to.
The part about having to walk a mile to find a barrel is, well, crap. If you have lived here for more than a month, You know where they all are and there’s at least one on every block of Hanover St so I fail to see how you need to walk a mile from anywhere in the North End. I can’t understand seeing those blue bags filled w/ dog waste in the gutter. The owner has done 90% of the work needed to pick up after their dog and they don’t do the easiest part of it…putting the actual bag in a trash barrel! It makes no sense.
Agree with John. The number and location of street barrels is no excuse for dumping your dogsh*t bags in the gutter or anywhere else in public. If you can’t find a barrel or are not willing to walk to one (what, a block max?). Bring it home and throw it in your personal trash. The city didn’t make you get a dog. You decided to on your own, so deal with it responsibly.
I have actually seen the poop bags removed from the garbage by the garbage men, so the dog owners may not be to blame (all of the time at least). When I asked them why they were doing this I was told there is some sort of law that says the waste can not be thrown in a regular trash bag but instead needs to be placed in a special bio hazard trash can.
I attended the trash and recycling meeting that was held at City Hall Tues. 10/22/13.
The Department of Public Works made it quite clear in their presentation that one of the 3 goals of the new trash and recycling contract(s) is “cleanliness.”
Given the trash pickers (etc.), if the current policy of being allowed to place residential trash out as early as 5pm the day before pick-up is not changed to allow us to put trash out the day trash is collected, there will never be any cleanliness in our neighborhood, period.
-David Marx-
NEWNC Public Safety Chairman
Toni and Janet I totally agree with both of you. All we can hope is that tomorrow we will elect a new mayor and hopefully the new ideas coming from the new regime will benefit our old neighborhood. Thanks Toni.
I strongly support this petition for the modification of the current garbage disposal procedure; however, in it’s current form it fails to address one major issue: traffic. Some early risers, such as myself, have been subject to the unfortunate experience of getting “stuck” behind a garbage collection vehicle on a one-way street with minimal outlets, such as Charter St (past Henchmen). This situation creates moderate traffic and safety problems at early hours, and it seems likely that these problems would be significantly increased if collection was attempted amidst rush-hour traffic. At the current schedule, the few people affected can frequently be seen attempting to reverse or even travel down narrow, one-way streets in the wrong direction (a problem occurs regularly already). If collection was moved to 9am the impact would likely be inflated. Additionally, consider the delivery vehicles, double parking, and parking on the sidewalk that would restrict the passing of waste-collection vehicles. Additionally, it is safe to assume that collecting trash later in the morning would take longer than in the early hours, resulting in a heavier burden on tax-payers. I love this idea and believe it would improve many of the sanitary issues in the neighborhood that we are all concerned with. Unfortunately there is no single solution that won’t include its own challenges that must be overcome.
Matt – you’re right, no one has talked about traffic yet, and you bring up good points, well thought out. I’ve been stuck a few times, it’s not fun – but it doesn’t last long. I’ve learned how to avoid it. If you’re an early riser then the later trash pickup will benefit you in this respect and you’ll be long gone before the trucks arrive.
No matter what time the pickup is or will be, cars will always get stuck behind the trucks. This is due to the one-way streets, not due to the hour of the pickup.
I respectfully disagree that a later pickup will result in more traffic. A 9 am pickup is no longer during rush hour. On the contrary, by 9 am the majority of people who drive OUT of the neighborhood to work are long gone, and those who drive in for work in the businesses are likewise probably already where they need to be.
You hit the nail on the head several times in your post. Pickups would probably take longer, I can see that. The last two lines of your post should be something everyone keeps in mind – “…this idea would improve many of the sanitary issues in the neighborhood that we are all concerned with. Unfortunately there is no single solution that won’t include its own challenges that must be overcome.”
I strongly feel this idea should be implemented. It drastically cuts the amount of time garbage is left on the sidewalk and means that there would no longer be any night of the week where we are stepping over trash. If we constantly argue/bicker/debate every little nuance of the ideas come up, then all we achieve is paralysis through analysis.
I admire Toni’s enthusiasm and drive, but fail to see the real benefit. if soooo many current residents don’t know or care about the current rules. How is changing the rules going to help?
Let’s face it, trash disposal is not enforceable, neither practically, nor financially.
Make the rules what you wish. The problem is not the people that know and follow the rules. The problem is the people that don’t care about or know the rules.
The cause of the current problems are the people that don’t know or care about the rules now. How is changing them going to help?
MB, you miss the point. The people who disregard rules is an entirely different topic and problem.
Franceso – With all due respect: I don’t think that I miss the point. What the rules are and who obeys them: The two are completely related and part of the overall trash problem that we are constantly suffering.
Make the rules what you will, but if a large percentage of the problem is people that a) put trash out whenever and wherever they want and b) don’t bag it properly and on top of that, the enforcement model is not effective or practical – where does that leave us? The same people do whatever they want and regardless of what the rules are, continue to create the bulk of the problem.
Again, just my opinion. Having said that, I support the measure in principle and am willing to give it a try.
Thanks MB!
At this point, I’ve got enough of my own situations to figure out solutions for. But I have to say, that I find it absolutely amazing how long the debates and discussions have been going on in regards to the trash problem in the North End.
I understand that the North End is a unique neighborhood. But it can’t be that unique when it comes to trash. If the problem was mine alone to come up with the solution f,or, I would start searching for similar type neighborhoods in Boston, Cambridge, or even Providence, New York, or even Toronto for that matter. My golly, some neighborhood, or some city, somewhere, similar to ours has got to already have a system that works just fine. Lets not waste too much time trying to create a solution that’s already been created somewhere else.
You complain that the commenters have not came up with compelling ideas but it’s the exact opposite.
We are arguing for and against a proposed plan that headlines this article.
So “My Golly” either sign the petition or come up with a competive idea to help this trash issue.