City of Cambridge Violates Own Trash Removal Guidelines
At about 12:15 on Saturday night (or Sunday morning if you want to be exact) my girlfriend and I were walking home from a bar and passed the Area IV Youth Center on Harvard Street, down the block from my house. As we approached the building, in front of us was a scene that has become all too familiar in Cambridge these days. A gross little rat was scurrying from the building to enjoy a tasty treat from bags of garbage that had been thrown in front of the entrance to the Youth Center.
The next morning, while again walking in front of the Youth Center I noticed the trash bags were still in their same spot. Even if placed there moments before my girlfriend and I saw them the night before (which is highly unlikely), the would have been there for about 10 hours. This is in direct violation of the recently-amended Cambridge Trash Removal guidelines which clearly state:
Trash in plastic bags can only be placed at the curb on the day of collection, no later than 7am.
Here are photos I snapped with my phone at about 10:00 A.M. the next day. In this first one notice the hole with some red garbage spilling out in the middle of the bag. This is clearly where the rat had gnawed through:
In this one you can see where the trash was unapologetically tossed in front of the Youth Center. Notice the bags on the curb in the right side of the frame, behind the car sideview windows.
And here's a view from the other side, and you can actually see the trash more clearly flowing out of the hole that the rat chewed.
And just to prove that this is actually in front of the Area IV Youth Center, here's a clear shot of the sign you can see in the previous two pictures.
Obviously, by taking the time to write and post these pictures, you can probably guess that this really irks me. It's not just that I'm pretty grossed out by rats, but it pisses me off to see that after the City Council spent so many hours debating solutions to the infestation, that one of their own agencies can't even adhere to the new rules. Even in the old ordinance it states:
The City shall require all federal, state and local government organizations to comply with the regulations in Sections 8.24.040, 8.24.070 through 8.24.160 and 8.24.240 of this chapter, for owners of private property and for commercial or nonprofit establishments. (Ord. 1152 (part), 1993: prior code § 17-81)
Now to be clear, my beef isn't with the Area IV Youth Center, per se. I'm a strong believer in city-sponsored youthprogrammingg. I know the Youth Center in my neighborhood is one of strongest in the city and I'm happy about that. I'm sure it's not even the fault of the staff at the center in that, while they're probably responsible for taking out the trash, it's highly possible they don't know about the new trash rules. My beef, therefore, is with the City and its lack of communication with its own agencies. The City must be a leader in bringing about the end of our rodent infestation, and must act in a responsible way which sets an example for residents and businessess who face monetary fines for disobeying these trash removal guidelines.
Contribute to Deval