Oct
5
The Curb Couches of North Loop
Filed Under Beautification
Crummy old couches. Worn-out tires. Three-legged tables.
A lot of neighborhoods keep this kind of stuff out of sight until bulky-item collection day rolls around. Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of it by the curb, year-round. Especially next to dumpsters and at the Lee Dorms.
Does it bother anyone else?
Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with it?
A few come to my mind.
a) We put together a modest fund and pay a private service to troll our streets, maybe once a month, and haul off the junk. I know for a fact that there are local junk haulers who would appreciate the business. Of course, we would need to make sure that the rubbish were being disposed of properly once hauled off.
b) We call the city and report it. Ruthlessly. Anyone have any luck with this in the past?
c) We send out a mailer to the entire hood reminding them of the official city rules, offering suggestions on how to get rid of junk, reminding them of bulky collection day, etc.
d) We put pressure on the apartment management companies to keep their trash in check.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
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One Response to “The Curb Couches of North Loop”
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‘A’ is probably your best bet. I used to live in one of those apts that always had furniture out front. The garbage was always left by random people who don’t want to pay the fees at the landfill, and don’t want to wait for bulky collection day- they just choose a random dumpster. And there were several times that I even caught people and suggested that I might call the police. Which only kept the people away that got caught. My landlord had to pay a ton of extra money for other people’s trash, which ended up raising our rent. You may be surprised to hear that many managers pay to have trash hauled off only to find more the very next day!(Yes it happened *that* often).
Option B doesn’t really work because you never know if you reported it to the correct place, and C only works for as long as people remember - and people have very short memories when it comes to responsibility.
If you want something done right, then do it yourself.