Friday, May 22, 2009

Tax Dollars At Work
Got a problem with a barking dog ?
Got a problem with garbage from a commercial establishment operating in a residential area ?
Got a problem with a sightline obstruction ?
Who do you call ? The city's bylaw enforcement people.
In recent months, Citizen Ellie has had to call upon bylaw enforcement to resolve a couple of problems which were affecting the quality of her life. What did she learn from this experience ? You have to be persistent and you have to be patient. You have to be fairly thick-skinned as your desire to have a bylaw enforced probably won't sit well with the offender. You also have to be brave enough to complain.
Citizen Ellie never ceases to be amazed at the number of cowards who live among us -- putting up with all sorts of nuisances; wanting anonymity; fearing reprisals; taking the view that there's no point in complaining because the city won't do anything anyway; endlessly bitching about the problem but doing nothing about it.
Wrong approach, folks.
It took Citizen Ellie a year to get something done about a sightline obstruction in the form of a cedar hedge at the intersection of her street. This cedar hedge blocked the view of oncoming traffic -- not to mention pedestrians including small children on tricycles approaching the intersection on the sidewalk. It was only a matter of time before an accident occurred or a child was run over.
The owner of the hedge kept coming up with excuses not to cut it back. In the spring, he argued, there were nesting birds which shouldn't be disturbed. In the fall, he argued, he was away on the Thanksgiving weekend and therefore couldn't cut it down. In other words, he was giving the bylaw officer the runaround. Shortly after Citizen Ellie pointed this runaround out in a letter to the director of the city's bylaw enforcement department (cc. to Mayor Larry) the hedge was cut back.
Citizen Ellie's usual approach in this sort of circumstance is to contact the person responsible for the by-law infraction. Snail mail is best -- registered mail even better -- copy to your files. You have a record of the efforts you have made to get the problem resolved. E-mails get erased. Phone calls are forgotten. If you can illustrate your concern with photos, do it. It's only after it becomes apparent that the problem-causer has no intention of acting that Citizen Ellie asks the city's bylaw enforcement department for help.
Citizen Ellie recently had to take action regarding garbage from a private school which continually littered her residential street. This school regularly put out for collection between 16 and 20 green garbage bags per week stuffed with remnants of student lunches. Judging from what the raccoons and other wildlife strewed around the street, the rich kids attending this school ate a lot of pasta.
Frequently the garbage was put out well in advance of collection. Last June, on what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the summer, the garbage was out at 4.30 p.m. on Friday for pickup on Monday morning. The wildlife had a field day. By early Saturday morning, most of the green garbage bags had been ripped open. By Sunday it was a reeking mess. To make matters worse, after the garbage was picked up no one from the school made any effort to clean up the trash which had been dragged by wildlife or blown down the street on to private residential property. It was left to the street's residents to clean up. A letter to the headmaster of this school, suggesting that a bin might be in order, elicited no response. The problem continued -- not so bad during the winter months -- even urban raccoons hibernate. But as soon as the weather turned warm and the snow melted and the raccoons woke up, there was garbage all over the street again. Another letter -- this time to the school's landlord, cc. to the headmaster. Again no response and no action. Time for a letter to the city's director of bylaw services. There is now a commercial bin outside this school.
As long as no one complained, this private school was able to get away with using the city's residential garbage pickup to dispose of its trash. Over the years it must have saved itself countless thousands of dollars given that commercial establishments pay more for commercial garbage pickup. The residential taxpayers on that street were subsidizing this commercial establishment which thanked them for their largesse by continually littering the street with garbage and lowering their property values. So much for social responsibility!
Citizen Ellie won't be winning any "Miss Popularity" awards soon in her neighborhood. But she won't have to get out her rake and clean up someone else's mess either.
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