The trash was getting picked up. But the cans were remaining in the street for days.
So people were complaining to the city through the SeeClickFix citizen-government problem-solving web platform.
So the city sent out a crew to remind neighbors that they have a deadline for retrieving their emptied trash cans each week. And for the most part the cans disappeared from view.
The city in question isn’t New Haven. It’s Memphis, Tennessee.
SeeClickFix Radio co-hosts Berkowitz and Smith.
Two officials from that city — 311 call center Supervisor Carolyn Malone and Deputy Chief Information Officer Michael Jones — talked about how they’re solving problems, on the latest edition of WNHH’s “SeeClickFix Radio” program.
By law, residents have until 7 p.m. to bring their emptied receptacles onto their property on trash pick-up day.
In practice, the city knows some people don’t always make it home by 7. So it gives them until the next day.
But even then, members of homeowners group noticed too many people leaving the receptacles out for days. Through SeeClickFix, they demanded action. It had become a “pet peeve” in town, Malone said.
Memphis’s public works department, which like New Haven’s has a “City Beautiful” program, started sending a crew out the afternoon after pick-up day to track down properties with receptacles still out, Malone said. The crew takes the receptacles. “Before we give it back,” it tells the owners, they need to “follow the rules.” Otherwise, the city threatens to keep the receptacles.
It doesn’t usually end up keeping the cans, Malone reported. Because people comply. “Usually it takes only one or two” warnings, she said. “Who wants nasty garbage in their house because they don’t have garbage cans?
Another hot topic in Memphis in recent years: a demand for bike lanes. The city has been putting them in—over 60 miles worth at this point, including five designated neighborhood routes. It also published an annual “state of bicycling” report.
In November, Memphis begun creating separated/ “protected” bike lanes — plans that in New Haven have become a hot topic of debate.
Jones said Memphis has started putting in some of the separated lanes to prevent collisions at blind spots and to prevent drivers from parking in bike lanes.
People for Bikes
Rendering for separated lane on Memphis’ Broad Avenue.
As in New Haven, some tensions in Memphis have surfaced between drivers not wanting to share the road and cyclists wanting more of the road as the city gradually embraces cycling culture. Meanwhile, Malone said, the city government has encouraged employees to ride to work through human-resources campaigns urging them to “get on the health kick” and by enabling people to check out bikes from garages.
“I see people riding bikes everywhere now,” Jones said.
Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full SeeClickFix Radio episode, which included a visit from New Haven City Engineer Giovanni Zinn.
This episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible in part through support from Yale-New Haven Hospital.
And while we're at it ... if we are considering having Public Works remove the trash and recyclable containers that are left in the streets/curbside/sidewalk after 24 hours from pick up date/time, can we also remove the ones that are used to 'hold' parking spaces ...particularly when it is not a recently shoveled out snow space! I live on Truman Street, and granted we have more cars than spaces (this street is densely populated with many 3 unit dwellings, some of which have two cars per unit) one has no legal authority to 'hold' a parking space on a public street. And since I'm on a roll and have the floor, can we also mandate that residents move their container to the REAR of their dwellings. I don't want to see or smell my neighbors overflowing garbage cans which are sitting on the side of their house when I pull into my driveway. Nor do I want to see or smell the garbage when it is sitting in the front of your house, just inside your fence. That would be a good one too!