Resident Response |

Thank you for the summary of Streets Operations spearheaded by Alder Yannette Figueroa Cole, District 10. It can't hurt to encourage residents to help by composting/mowing/bedding and leaving clippings in the lawn. I don't agree with encouraging the carbon footprint associated with residents hauling their leaves themselves to the waste sites.

Here are some additional suggestions which may be worth considering, and may provide a more substantial payback for everyone:

1) Reduce the various costs (staff time, equipment depreciation, emissions) of repetitively starting and stopping the large trucks used for pick-ups of all kinds.

A. For brush and yard waste (excepting for leaves during the months of September through November) allow residents only one pile per pick-up per address.

B. For garbage, try a winter pilot in a neighborhood whereby residents volunteer to put their garbage out every other week. Our household has done this for years and it's no problem for a smaller household and during cold (no rotting) temperatures.

C. A further pilot could identify neighborhoods where neighbors may volunteer to put their bins out together in one location instead of two (pair up). This could be tried in more suburban style neighborhoods.

2) Start enforcing the brush and yard waste rules. There are few consequences for residents who break or bend the rules and the rest of us pay.

A. Collection crews could carry a stash of door hangers so that when they encounter an address that is not following the rules that household can be warned and educated with no personal contact. The door hanger could be designed to cover the most common mistakes/unwanted behaviors. Most residents will respond to the education because most of this behavior is owing to not knowing any better. This is especially true for new residents. It would take a crew member 30 seconds to hang a door hanger where it's needed and they'd be stopping there anyway.  It may never be practical to pursue or fine or surcharge a repeat offender, but that would be okay because the educational aspect will have the greatest payback. Over a few years, the number of doorhangers hung would provide a quick and easy metric for results (and where). If crews are not a good delivery mechanism, the supervisors who occasionally drive routes might be the way to go.

B. Don't pick up loads that are put out against the rules. Leave a door hanger.

3) Institute a fixed fee that becomes a permanent part of the closing costs for all home/condo/residence purchases in the city.

A. Dedicate most of that revenue to Streets on the premise that most times people move there is an extra load or loads for Streets to deal with. If this isn't already done to landlords/rental managers on behalf of the college move-in/move-out cycle, start doing it.

B. Use some of the above revenue for the city to create and produce a folder or welcome packet or e-file which buyers' realtors would be asked to distribute at all closings. The item could communicate things like: correct garbage, recycling, brush, yard waste, procedures; the importance of no leaf piles in the street; the fact that storm drains empty into the lakes and, therefore, what to do and don't do; and so on per the city's expertise. This, again, might produce on-going and long-term reductions in resident behaviors which raise costs and diminish quality of life.

4) More of a question: is the City Council monitoring metrics to keep tabs on how much extra work and expense the Streets operations cause for themselves? I'm thinking of things like: snowplow damage to curbs/streets; snowplowing curb-cut requests (do-overs); terrace damage repairs (from brush and yard waste pick-up done poorly); and similar.

I do not need a reply to this, and I DO NOT WANT a reply from Streets especially. Been there, done that. I hope you may find a useful suggestion here.

Name Withheld- Thank you for this communication.