The 'N' Word at Diva Lounge.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

The Somerville News has the story about the 'N' word being used at Diva Lounge that you guys were discussing here a few weeks back:  http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/

Also ,what is the deal with a 50lb limit on garbage cans? I just bought a can with wheels on the bottom to make the chores easier and now Somerville is implementing its new garbage code with a 50lb limit. The trash guys left a sticker on my can that says it is too big and heavy for them. Can the just roll the can like I do?    Where did they get 50lbs from the airline security industry?

Comments

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

can they pull the individual bags out? I have had one can for three years now, and another I bought a couple of months ago when they were secretly discussing and or sitting on these new rules. Many people have this type of can. Will they exchange these cans for us?

[ceo]

You don't have to fill it all the way, you know. :-) I'm afraid I might be at fault for the new policy, due to my bad habit of trying to stuff all my trash into one can so as to save myself the unendurable backbreaking labor of rolling another can the 20 feet downhill to the curb. :-/

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Maybe that is right, I sure hope so. The way it sounded form our neighbor was that there was a note on our can that said we can not use this can anymore and would have to get a new smaller one.

For anyone interested the new guidelines are posted here: http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Why not just put less stuff in it? Use several cans?

I'm sorry, maybe I'm misreading your post and they rejected your can when it had only ten pounds of stuff in it...but after seeing some of the things Somervillains throw out (300 pounds of potting soil in one garbage can, leftover turkey carcasses that've sat in the sun for four days), I can totally understand why the DPW would want to enforce a weight limit and avoid having to reach inside massive trash bins.

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

Besides the overhead lift (repeated hundreds of times each morning!), there is the fact that for many streets, we cannot drive while they are emptying garbage cans - so pulling out poorly tied or stuck or broken bags individually would for sure cause traffic headaches.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Y'know, a 50-lb limit really doesn't seem like an unreasonable thing.

Expecting the garbagemen (who, frankly, have a tough enough job as it is) to have to pick out one bag at a time from folks' trash cans seems like it would be rather less reasonable, especially to those folks who already get stuck behind the trash crews on Somerville's narrow streets.

As far as expecting the city to change cans, I have to wonder why they should - all that'll happen is the bill for the new cans will come back to you in property taxes. (Or come out of some other city service)

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Well there are plenty of people that just put bags on the sidewalk, so you should be happy to learn the new guidelines state that all trash must be in a can now.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

You expect the garbage man to reach into your giant trash can and remove every bag individually? What happens if a homeless person rips open a bag in search of bottles for return? Or if a nasty raccoon digs into the bags for a snack of moldy cheese? I'll tell ya what happens. The garbage man picks out a bag, pulls it from the can, and all your trash spills from the ripped up bag onto the street. And then he laves it there. I've seen it happen people put out naked bags which inevitably get ripped and rummaged through and the trash sits on the street for months, until it slowly degrades or blows away (I don't have street cleaning).

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

Or someone throws out needles and someone gets stuck....

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

The thing is that I bought these cans with the lids because they were better at time when there were write ups in the papers about the rats and the city was ticketing people. This was a few months back, before they had these official rules. I am sure that a lot of people ran out and got cans like mine too. Now they come out with what might be "reasonable" rules except that people have already bought cans.
And the write up on their site (http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/) mentions a link to regulations for the cans and I can't find the link that they are talking about. Nor I have recieved this mailer they mention.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

All you have to do is refrain from piling the thing full of garbage and you're all set. Are the ginormous garbage cans the only ones that come with lids? I doubt that. You just happened to pick one that fits entirely too much trash. I'm assuming it's the huge square one with the attached hinged lid?

From what I recall, lids have been required for a good long time (or what that just Cambridge?) but the city never does much about it. My cans do not have lids but I don't put the garbage in them until trash day so it doesn't matter. Hell, I don't even take the trash out every week. Living alone has its perks. I don't fill a bag a week, recycling excluded.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

I Hope it ends up that I just have to keep it under 50lbs. The lids are only required to store the garbage outside overnight, they actually recommend removing the lids on trash day. But since there are some can regulations floating out there (now) in the ether somewhere ii is going to come back to bite.

The thing is the city is often pushing some new initiative without thinking it through thoroughly, they push it out and then receive a backlash and then regroup and change it. This instance would be fine if they did not push this a few months ago only to cause a lot of people to buy cans and then come out with barrel size regulations afterward.