Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I Went For A Bicycle Ride Down The Back Lanes

I went for a bicycle ride down a few of the back lanes in my area. I went in the lanes between Main and Redwood to Mountain and McGregor.
There sure are a lot of bulky items in the lanes. I wrote down some basic information regarding each single block of back lanes, and I sent the information in to 311. I have requested that the items be picked up.
In the past I took pains to get the correct address of each dumpster, take a picture of the bulky items, and send the information, all neatly arranged, to 311. But since starting this, I have become aware that the bulky item information that I send to 311 is not forwarded to the people who actually pick the items up. It is not directly sent to the company that picks up the garbage.
The information I send to 311 is forwarded to a City Worker, who gets into his truck and drives down the lanes that I mention in my email. The City Worker verifies that the information I sent is correct. Only after the City Worker has verified my information is the request put through to the company that will pick up the garbage.
So I got to thinking. Why am I spending my time walking down back lanes, stopping and taking a picture of the bulky items, going to the front of the street and counting the number of houses down to get the address and sending the well compiled information to 311 if they are just going to send a paid City Worker out to redo my work.
After my bicycle ride, I sent an email to 311. I gave basic information on the items that were in each back lane. I gave enough information for the City Worker to locate the lanes of interest, and drive down to verify for himself that there truely is bulky garbage that needs to be picked up. This should be enough information to have the City Worker investigate the back lanes and take care of the issues.


There are many large bulk items to be picked up in the St Johns area in the back lanes of Redwood/Boyd, Boyd/College, and College/Mountain between Main Street and McGregor Avenue.
In the lane of Redwood/Boyd between Salter and Powers there is an armchair beside a dumpster
In the lane of Redwood/Boyd between Powers and Andrews there are a few piles of mattresses, and other items
In the lane of Redwood/Boyd between Andrews and McGregor there are mattresses and a couch
In the lane of Boyd/College between Andrews and McGregor there is furniture at a few of the dumpsters
In the lane of Boyd/College between Powers and Andrews there are mattresses in two places
In the lane of Boyd/College between Salter and Powers there is a mattress
In the lane of College/Mountain between Aikens and Salter there is a window frame and another dumpter has a couch beside it.
In the lanes of College/Mountain between Salter and McGregor there are several other bulky items beside dumpsters.
Please have these issues addressed.
I have been advised by the 311 department that the Water and Waste Department has been notified of this and have recieved a single ticket number for reference. Maybe all I really have to do is let them know that there is stuff that needs to be dealt with. I will keep an eye on this and let you know what I find.

1 comment:

  1. This situation is really quite outrageous. I remember when the autobins were rolled out back in the 90s, a number of people were predicting that this exact scenario would unfold.

    The inner city has become the defacto dumping ground for the rest of Winnipeg, and by the sounds of it, the City's waste services either can't or won't deal with the mess.

    It seems as though there is a blatant double standard - one for the inner city, and one for everywhere else. Thank you for raising the issue, and I hope civic candidates in wards where autobins are used are aware of this.

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