Who's watching our trash?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Short version: if someone gets a fine for not putting a bag of trash in the barrel, does that mean someone called 311 to complain, or do trash collectors/parking enforcement/dpw/police go around on trash day with ticket books?

My elderly aunt who lives in West Somerville had some company for Easter, and asked them to take a big bag of trash out for her because Monday is garbage day on her street.

Anyway, they might have left the bag next to the barrel instead of cramming it in the barrel, because she just got a citation in the mail from the city for leaving trash out.

Now this post isn't to whine about the rule, we don't want mice in the streets, etc. But it seems very strange that someone would be patrolling the sidewalks for errant garbage bags in the wee hours before trash pickup. It doesn't sound like a neighbor called 311. The neighbors are all either old people who've known each other for many years, or college kids who sleep late.

So what I'm wondering is, has checking for garbage bags been added to, say, the parking officers' duties? Or are the garbage men writing up the cites? Or even if someone calls 311, would they send someone from the DPW to write it up?

Comments

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in this too... a friend of mine owns a house in Somerville, and is repeatedly fined for garbage violations presumably caused by his tenants... he actually lives hundreds of miles away and can't possibly be here weekly to inspect their trash disposal practices, but he gets zapped with the fines for it, and he's not here often enough to be able to effectively fight the fines either.

The idea of having some basic requirements for proper trash disposal? Good. The implementation here in Somerville? Seems pretty bad to me.

[doceydo.livejournal.com]

Is your friend Paul Lavelle? He's our landlord. And we have gotten fines before because our trash can lid has blown off when it's windy, which is completely ridiculous. The trash rules do seem ridiculously harsh here.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

I am sure the DPW has someone driving around to check. They also look for construction waste or clues that someone is remodeling without a building permit. (we got caught because we had a bathroom sink/vanity in our trash a few years ago)

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

You need a permit to replace a sink?

Floors and Walls

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

that's what I was told when I called a few years ago- I was like I need a permit for floors and walls??! She said painting walls and say sanding floors you Do not need a permit; but you need a permit for everything else. So technically any kind of work requires a permit

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

That sounded weird to me too. Isn't a sink just a fixture, you're not installing any new plumbing?

The plumber mafia owns the city.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

They have to keep the prices up.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

They do drive around randomly and write tickets. My landlord got two tickets for the same trash that I put out when I was moving - two different tickets, two different days, but the same pile of trash!