"Uncovered trashcan" fine at 3AM during high winds.

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

So how hard up is the City of Somerville for cash? So hard-up, it appears, that they issued an "uncovered trashcan" ticket at 3:00AM (yes, that's right, in the middle of the night) DURING a storm in which Somerville was experiencing high winds and rain. You all remember the one from a few nights ago.

My dad/landlord got a ticket in the mail yesterday, including a photograph of a trashcan on the ground with the lid off on the side of the house. Normally, our trashcans are locked tight with their covers, except, apparently, when high winds and rain knock them over. We are going to appeal the ticket. I just think it is outrageous that this was even issued. Trashcans were down all over the neighborhood, as well as roof shingles everywhere, and small to medium branches on the sidewalks and streets, etc.

Did anyone else get this fine or know of anyone else who had? I mean, if the trashcans weren't picked up and it was, say, 11AM, there may be some merit to the ticket. But since it was issued during the middle of the night and during an ongoing storm, it seems really bizarre.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I don't know what it was like at 3 am, but a few hours earlier Thursday night, I was struggling to walk from the Davis Square T stop to Day Street, and could make forward progress only after I folded my umbrella. There were tree branches down on Day Street next to the municipal parking lot, across from Ideal Engine and Sacco's Bowl-Haven.

(I thought trash day was Tuesday, not Thursday or Friday, in the Davis Square area?)

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

We're not far from Davis, and our trash day is Monday. However, if we did not have a porch to put our trashcans under (and thus out of the wind) I feel *confident* that a trashcan could have blown from a place near the house, not on the sidewalk, halfway to Oz in that wind...

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

a big plastic trash barrel blew from somewhere (i didn't see it actually moving) and landed on the sidewalk in front of the house next door to me. it looked like it might have bounced off the car that was parked there, altho the car didn't have any significant damage. but there was still a random trash can on its side on the sidewalk on a non-trash day. (ours are under our porch too. next door, not so much.)

boywonder? i would absolutely contest that ticket.

only applicable if it was placed at the curb for pick up:

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Fight it - it's NOT a violation according to the city's own guidelines as published on their webpage:

http://www.somervillema.gov/spotlight.cfm?id=7

* While stored on your property, all trash must now be held in a waterproof & airtight container with a lid.
* Trash put out for pickup must remain in a container, but does not need to be covered. We encourage residents to remove lids before bringing trash to the curb in order to prevent loss or damage.
* Trash storage containers may not exceed 50 lbs when full.
* Times you may put out your trash remain the same: trash may be placed out for pickup no earlier than 4:00 p.m. on the day before trash collection and no later than 7:00 a.m. the day of trash collection.

Hell, from the brochure (http://www.somervillema.gov/CoS_Content/documents/Trash%20Brochurefinal.pdf):

Do I need to keep the barrel covered when I
place it out for collection?
No. We encourage you to remove the
lids prior to placing your barrels out
for collection.

Re: only applicable if it was placed at the curb for pick up:

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

This isn't what I understood--I've always tried to keep the garbage can covered when it's sitting by my door, but Rose (landlady) called a few months back to say she'd been fined by the city because the lid wasn't on it when I put it out for collection--and I'd taken the lid off precisely BECAUSE the trash collectors would lose it/mangle it/etc. (Between having cans outright stolen or so badly damaged they've been unusable, I'm not terribly fond of the trash collectors these days; and I don't even bother to get a recycling bin any more, as those always disappear, even when my address is on them. Then again, that latter one may be the neighbors...) It sounds as if the City needs to make sure its enforcers understand the regulations as they've been given to the public, and/or stop letting/encouraging said enforcers to ticket illegally, because what they're doing now is flat out WRONG.

Re: only applicable if it was placed at the curb for pick up:

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

t sounds as if the City needs to make sure its enforcers understand the regulations as they've been given to the public

You think?

These are the same enforcers who ticketed someone before the four hour window to move cars had expired. (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/2046081.html?thread=23975041#t23975041)

Re: only applicable if it was placed at the curb for pick up:

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like a complete idiot--I was thinking more along the lines of assuming them to be "really clueless" as opposed to "outright greedy & malicious." Based on other posters' experiences/reactions, though, it's sounding a lot more like the latter than the former. *sigh*

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

The trash wasn't out on the sidewalk. It was next to the house where I keep the trash cans in between my house and my neighbor's house. (We both keep our trash there).

They had to be looking for trash cans down between houses in order to see it, especially at night. The trash cans are always covered, and the covers are attached to our fence so they don't blow away or go missing. It's very peculiar, this middle of the night trash fine.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Do NOT appeal this ticket by mail. You will fail miserably. Show up in person and talk to a live human being. At least then you'll have a fighting chance.

This ticket doesn't surprise me. The Curatone administration has been a monument to petty asshattery and bureaucratic fucktardism to the infinity + 1 degree. Since he first took office and declared a snow emergency and had hundreds of cars ticketed and towed when there wasn't even a storm, it's been one thing after another like this.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Yeah - if it is worth it to you, appeal in person. The mail/online appeals seem to be automagically denied.

[leko.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what fucktardism is going on (although this fine certainly sounds like an example) but getting bent out of shape because a storm that all weather services was predicting never happened seems unnecessary. If the mayor actually thinks a storm is coming, it makes sense to declare a snow emergency, because you want the roads cleared _before_ the snow actually shows up.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much the declaration as the fact that even when it was obvious the storm was a flop and there was zero snow, they were still ticketing and towing cars.

And then there was the whole parking permitting fiasco.

[leko.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. yeah, that's bullshit.

[ron_newman]

I don't think appealing the ticket by mail waives your right to subsequently appeal it in person.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure an online appeal does preclude the ability to appeal in person. Technically, there is no "appeal of a(n unsuccessful) appeal" although one might get lucky and catch someone who's reasonable.

Which is what happened when I went in after I lost the online appeal of my parking ticket. In person, they dismissed it.

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

I think that given the weather conditions that you have a good case for appeal.

Overnight ticketing seems to be their MO. I also received a ticket at 2-3am when some tenants left a bunch of trash bags after moving. I don't know if the police do this or they have some kind of "trash patrol". I imagine that they do it in the wee hours because they can move around the city more quickly and no one will see them skulking around people's side yards with cameras. Quite creepy in a way and while I can understand the sanitation issues it does smack of revenue generation.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity, is it legal for people (even from the city) to trespass onto and photograph your property?

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

In my case the barrels were visible from the sidewalk. I would hope that they would be limited to what they could view from the sidewalk or street and would not actually trespass to check out your trash storage habits, but who knows.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Can you actually see trash inside the barrels from the sidewalk? I usually don't slap a top on our cans unless they're loaded, so am I going to be in trouble for having a number of empty, uncovered cans?

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

Good point. I don't know as all my barrels, empty or not, have lids. Given their photo documentation methods, I assume that they would have to show trash in an uncovered bin. Spilled bins or trash outside of the bin are easy. I wonder to what extent they try to check other cases.

Story??

[7news-producer.livejournal.com]

Hi Boywonder,

I am a producer at 7 news. Just read your story and want to hear more about it! Please call our station-617-725-0775.

Thanks!

Re: Story??

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I responded to your email.

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to imagine them walking in the INCREDIBLY powerful winds that night, taking pictures of violations at 3 in the morning, and feeling like decent human beings. That storm ripped literally half of the roof shingles off of my next-door neighbor's house (gutters and all!) so for them to find it a "violation" that you didn't sit outside with your garbage cans all night replacing the lids every ten seconds hits all-time lows.

I hope that news report gets aired to show how petty this city is becoming. As much as the city claims these are isolated incidents (such as the one pierceheart refers to above) that are accidents or mistakes, they seem to happen far too often.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Hey boywonder, what ever happened with this? Did you appeal? Any resolution?