Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Back Lane Patrol Dec 8, Snow And All

I went for a walk this afternoon down my back lane. I have been walking down the lane at least once a week since the winter snow fell, and have periodically found bulky items hiding under the snow. I guess winter is not stopping people from cleaning out their houses and leaving the remains in the back lanes of the North End. Last week I let 311 know there were some mattresses behind one of the dumpsters in my lane, and today I see that it has been taken away.
My back lane was clear of any excess bulk garbage today, but in the lane down the street from me there were two dumpsters with a mattress each, and one dumpster having a sofa chair beside it. The next street over had two dumpsters with wooden furniture or dressers beside them. All bulk items have been reported to 311 and should be picked up sometime within the next week or so.

I will be going to my second meeting at City Hall tomorrow, for the Stakeholders Advisory Committee to the Garbage Master Plan. At the meeting I will be recommending these bulk items to be picked up on a weekly basis, by a regularly scheduled garbage truck.  There is enough garbage being deposited into the North End that the current system of reporting single items for pickup is far too time intensive and expensive for us to continue with. Until this illegal dumping gets under control, the garbage must be picked up. At the Stakeholders Advisory Committee meetings I have learned two important things so far. First, they are very much aware that illegal dumping is a huge problem. And second, the picking up of garbage in cities is done because garbage is a health concern. This bulk garbage must be picked up in a timely manor because the city is supposed to be taking care of it for health reasons, at the very least.
Now, as far as the illegal dumping of garbage goes, everyone in the North End knows there are bulk items being dumped in our back lanes. We all know they appear mysteriously in the night and are often coming from outside the area.
Although it is against the law to illegally dump these items in the back lanes of the North End, nobody is ever prosecuted. At this point you are wondering why I should care so much about all this garbage being deposited outside my yard, in the dumpsters behind my house, in my lane, and in the North End in general?  Why should I keep writing about garbage, and why should I get so upset that I go to the extent of attending meetings at City Hall?
Well, I will tell you why. I care because the people who are doing the dumping are making a statement. They are saying the North End is not worth caring about. They are saying they have no respect for the North End and feel there is nothing wrong with tossing their garbage in our lanes. They are saying the North End is nothing but a garbage dump. And they are beating us down with the trash they are depositing on us.
City Hall is allowing these actions to take place. They are turning a blind eye to the illegal dumpers and ignoring any hints that the Community By-Laws Offices are not doing their jobs. City Hall is saying to the North End "We don't care about you". They are saying the North End is not worth fighting for and not worth upholding the laws for. And City Hall is saying the North End is, was, and always will be a garbage dump.
It's amazing how City Hall can say on one hand how concerned they are about Crime in the North End, and hail the new helicopter as a great resource in the fight against Crime, and on the other hand do nothing about the criminals dumping their garbage in the area, creating a huge culture of disrespect for the children of the North End to grow up in.
My little issue of garbage is the tip of the iceburg in building respect and raising children that care about themselves, their property, and their community. It's far more than one guy driving a truck into the North End and throwing a pile of construction material into a dumpster. Car theives and shotgun weilding gangsters don't just wake up one day and say they are going to be criminals. They are moulded into that life by their experiences and their environment.
Help me help the city become a better place. Lobby City Hall to start enforcing the By-Laws and lets get this illegal dumping under control.

8 comments:

  1. The illegal dumpers may be saying the things you suggest they are, but they may also be saying "Brady Road is too far", "I don't think I should drive for an hour AND pay $10 to dump this old couch", "I can't afford to fix the flat tires I get at the dump", "The dump isn't open during hours I can get there" among other things. BTW, I saw the helicopter yesterday, and had this overwhelming feeling of "safe" come over me. Everything was right in the world at that moment.

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  2. RM,are you apologizing for the criminals who add to the misery of people living with poverty, or are you making excuses for yourself?

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  3. I do agree that there may be issues with the Brady Landfill site, such as the occasional flat tire, hours of operation, time and money spent in delivering construction garbage, etc. But this should not give people permission to dump garbage elsewhere. These illegal dumpers are making decisions on where they are dumping their garbage. The construction material is not being dumped in the back lanes in other areas of the City with autobins to the extent that they are in the North End and West End. Decisions are being made to leave garbage in specific areas.
    As for the flat tires, I have had two flat tires on my vehicle this year alone from traveling down my back lane, as a direct result of construction materials and roofing nails being scattered across my back lane. So illegal dumpers should take that into consideration as well when they are determining where to dump. They may get flat tires if they dump even more garbage in the North End, due to the conditions of the lanes after others of their kind have done their dumping.

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  4. Most of the illegal dumping in the north end, is done by residents of the north end.

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  5. In my own personal experience, on my one block in the North End, I have been tracking the garbage issue. I have found that in my one back lane, most of the illegal dumping has resulted from truck driving down my lane and dumping construction material and unwanted household items. I have also found that some garbage has come from landlords of houses on my street. The landlords do not live in the North End, although the garbage they deposit comes from their houses. They do not have to live with the consequences of the garbage they deposit behind their rental units. There was also one resident who filled two dumpsters with construction material. All of these issues were reported to the Community By-Law offices and none of these people were prosecuted.
    So, what you say is partially true, some of the illegal dumping is done by North End residents. But in my own back lane the large majority of the dumping is done by people who do not live here.
    Check the previous blog entries for the documented evidence of illegal dumpings in my back lane since the end of August.

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  6. @ Anonymous. Nope. I'm making no excuses for either the persons doing the illegal dumping, or myself (especially since I take my construction debris to Brady). My point was, Winnipeg has some serious problems with it's waste management, and the current system is neither user friendly, nor convenient. The City has culpability for the problem by being the entity responsible for solutions.

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  7. You bet Winnipeg has it's problems with waste management. I am LMAO off about the clown who suggested North End residents were doing all the dumping in our own back lanes, HONEY MOST OF US ONLY WISH WE HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY ALL THAT CRAP < never mind dump it! Actually when i take stuff to the dump I see more stuff I wish I could bring home!
    Rae if you ever need a back up perosn this retire school teacher will be righr behind you!

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  8. Dumping means lazy in some cases, means no way to get to Brady, means I don't want to spend 410 for a pick up because i don't have the $10.00.
    In my case it means that it is the only time I had to visit my old growing up days on Mountain Avenue, which I miss. The City should just pick up the "illegal" stuff and get on with life.
    I stopped dumping while living on Wellington Crescent, as all I had to do was toss the stuff in the Assiniboine and watch it head out to Selkirk Manitoba. lol

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