A Sunday Walk Down My Back Lane

I went for a nice walk down the lane with my husband today. It was a bit chilly. I am going to have to start taking mittens with me in the future, as my hands were getting a bit cold while handling my icy cold metal camera.

As we were going down the lane, we noticed an individual checking the dumpsters. A few times the person got his head right in the dumpster. Then he jumped all the way into the next one. I don't know what he was after, but he seemed quite persistant in making sure he checked every morsel of trash.

We went a little further down the lane and noticed one of the dumpsters on the block had been recently burned. Actually, it was the new dumpster I had installed earlier in the summer, where the garbage was piling up on the ground. Now there is no lid, or very little remaining anyways, and the metal shows signs of a recent fire.

Behind the burned dumpster, there are a few old tvs stacked. There are always stacks of tvs in this particular yard, and regularly several tvs in the dumpsters in and around the house. I often wonder where the tvs come from. And what is being stripped out of them that someone would go to the bother of collecting, then disposing of them. This will become another project of mine, to watch the number of tvs being disposed of from that house. It is actually against the rules of garbage disposal to put electronics in your regular garbage. They should not be going to the Brady Landfil. But the dumpsters make it easy to dispose of all sorts of items that should not be in the Landfil. If the item is in the dumpster, it gets taken away. And I have seen dumpsters in my back lane stacked high with electronics, and the contents of those dumpsters get picked up and taken to Brady. There are all sorts of electronics being thrown out.

The next house had a broken toilet sitting at the back of the yard, next to the garage. The toilet has been there for quite a while. I will have to let 311 know it is sitting there, and see if it can be removed.

One block over from mine, there is a boarded up house. I noticed it got boarded a few weeks ago. And a street over, there is another boarded house. What happens after the house is boarded up? How long does the owner of the house have to do something with the location?

This will be another of my projects. I want to see how many houses there really are in my area that are boarded up, and what is actually being done with them. If they are getting fixed up, I am all for it. But if they just sit there and cause more houses to drop into the same disrepair, I am far from fine with that happening.

During the walk, I found a couch and chair stacked in the back yard of one house, up against the side fence. It is not being used as lawn furniture, and is not covered. It seems to be an item that has been discarded, but has not been moved to the back lane where I would be able to have it removed. Maybe I will ask 311 about it. The couch is a fire hazzard, just waiting to happen. I do not want it to be lit on fire like the couch in my lane last week.

There are so many issues, just in my back lane. I have a burned out couch and fire damage to a house from a fire last week, which I have already reported to 311, and the recently burned dumpster down the lane. There are electronics stacking in a back yard that will later end up the dumpster. Then there is a broken and abandoned toilet. The neighbourhood is filled with boarded houses. And there are couches in back yards, just waiting to be set on fire. Who is actively taking care of these issues? Is the City of Winnipeg so problem oriented that nothing gets seen as an issue until someone complains? Do By-Law Officers and other city officials only notice issues where a citizen complains? And are the issues taken care of after a complaint is made? I didn't even mention everything everything I saw on my walk today. I never mentioned any of the graffiti that I passed. I never said a word about the broken windows I saw. There are so many issues, just in my back lane.
I don't even know how to end this blog entry. How about:
Who really cares about the North End?
Who's job is it, anyway?
What is being done to make my neighbourhood a place where I feel safe, and a place where I want to live?
What's this world coming to?
I guess I will keep sending my issues to 311.
And I guess I will continue to care about my block in the North End.

Illegal Dumping Man Found And I Am Making A Statement

I reported an illegal dumping of construction material to 311 back in August. I was told at the time that nothing further could be done to find the person because the City By-Laws department did not have access to the MPI database to find out who this person was. I had a picture of the person, the truck he used, and the license plate of the truck used in the illegal dumping. That was not enough, at the time, to determine who the person was. The illegal dumper was free to dump whatever he wanted, whereever he wanted, because the system was broken.
Well, today I got a call from the By-Law department. I was told they were provided the information on the license plate and were able to proceed with the case. I will be making a statement next week. If necessary, I will also go to court to ensure this individual knows they did something wrong.

I remember the arrogance of the individual telling me he had the right to put his construction materials in my dumpster. I remember the arrogance of the individual telling me I should clean up my back lane. And I remember that my dumpster could not be emptied that week, because the door he jammed into it was too large to fit through the garbage truck mechanism. I remember that the City of Winnipeg tax payers had to pay for a second truck to come down my lane and get the door removed from the dumpster before I could get the dumpster emptied the next garbage day.
It took two and a half months to get the information from MPI, but at least they got it. Maybe the system is getting corrected. I sure hope so. But I will continue to work to correct the issues of waste management in the North End.

Garbage Master Plan And My Back Lane

The Garbage Master Plan Expo is this coming Saturday at the Convention Center. I am going to be there. And I am going to give my 30 seconds of input on what I think our Garbage Service should be like going forward. I want to make sure that my concerns are heard.
The North End could be a cleaner and safer place. If our back lanes were better taken care of, and garbage was removed regularly, including the bulk garbage that seems to accumulate all too frequently, we could start to change the attitudes of the residents. If we could have cleaner back lanes, we could feel better about ourselves, and start to have more respect for our neighbourhoods.
If the illegal dumping of bulk garbage was reported more and the By-Laws department were able to actually investigate all complaints and enforce the By-Laws, we could begin to change the actions of those who are currently doing the illegal dumping in the North End.
Imagine a North End that was clean. Imagine driving down a back lane in the heart of the North End and find the dumpsters empty and burn free. Imagine the back lane with no mattresses or couches lining it. Isn't that enough of an idea to fight for? Imagine the change in attitude from people inside the North End. And those who would dump their construction materials and unwanted household waste may think twice about dumping in a clean back lane.
Maybe I am a dreamer, but nothing gets done without a dream to start. I think the North End is worth fighting for.

The Fate Of A North End Couch

I left the neighbourhood for one day and the whole place seemed to go up in flames. I read in the Friday Free Press that there were fires in the back lanes of Redwod, Alfred, and Aberdeen, all in the 300 block. Someone must have been busy with a book of matches.
When I got home Friday night, I did a quick drive down my own lane to check and make sure it was 'burn free'. No such luck.

There was one house in the lane that had a couch up against the back of it. The couch had been sitting there for as long as I can remember. But it was no longer sitting against the house. Its burned out carcass was up against the fence. And the back of the house had markings of a small house fire.

During my back lane walks I have been reporting bulky items that have been located in the lanes and against dumpsters. I know I can report those items and have them eventually taken away by the BFI trucks. I know I complain about the system, and how inefficient it is, but at least I can get those items removed from my neighbourhood.
But what can I do about the couches that sit in back yards. What can I do about the fire hazzards accumulating in so many of the yards of the North End? Is this an issue to report as a By-Law infraction? Should I notify the landlords that there are couches sitting in the back yards of their properties? Or do I just wait for them to be set on fire, and wait until someone moves the burned out carcass of the couch into the back lane so I can report it to 311 to have it picked up?
At least the fire was contained to the one house. And at least the fire was put out before it got out of control.