Why we need a comprehensive yard waste program in Durham
Exhibit 1:
This guy spent a lot of time gathering his leaves up on W. Markham Ave. Sadly, the city of Durham doesn't pick up leaves that are placed in plastic bags, so they'll be there for a while, until enough people complain and the city has to send a special crew out to grab them. They'll probably be dumped in with regular solid waste.
At least the bagged leaves aren't clogging the storm drains, though. This is near the corner of Markham and Washington.
First prize, though, goes to this house on the corner of Urban and Duke which is, it appears, in the midst of a renovation. Someone just decided that the leaves weren't their problem, and dumped a whole yard's worth of them onto the street. Even better, though, they decided to block the curb cut with them as well.
Fortunately, no one in a wheelchair or pushing a baby stroller ever has to use the sidewalk along Duke Street there.
Why is that, you ask?
Well, because these same folks have blocked the sidewalk with this pile of sand for at least a month, now. I first came across this on the Friday after the election, when i was walking back from Brightleaf Square. I just kind of assumed that they had a permit from the city to block the sidewalk for a couple of days while they mixed some concrete as part of the back yard renovations. But here it is a month later, and nothing has changed about the scene.
At least, there's a sidewalk, though.
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of "Curb cuts to nowhere."
This guy spent a lot of time gathering his leaves up on W. Markham Ave. Sadly, the city of Durham doesn't pick up leaves that are placed in plastic bags, so they'll be there for a while, until enough people complain and the city has to send a special crew out to grab them. They'll probably be dumped in with regular solid waste.
At least the bagged leaves aren't clogging the storm drains, though. This is near the corner of Markham and Washington.
First prize, though, goes to this house on the corner of Urban and Duke which is, it appears, in the midst of a renovation. Someone just decided that the leaves weren't their problem, and dumped a whole yard's worth of them onto the street. Even better, though, they decided to block the curb cut with them as well.
Fortunately, no one in a wheelchair or pushing a baby stroller ever has to use the sidewalk along Duke Street there.
Why is that, you ask?
Well, because these same folks have blocked the sidewalk with this pile of sand for at least a month, now. I first came across this on the Friday after the election, when i was walking back from Brightleaf Square. I just kind of assumed that they had a permit from the city to block the sidewalk for a couple of days while they mixed some concrete as part of the back yard renovations. But here it is a month later, and nothing has changed about the scene.
At least, there's a sidewalk, though.
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of "Curb cuts to nowhere."
Labels: Durham, Pedestrian safety, yard waste
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
3 Comments:
nice pics.
It is hard to believe we are in the 21st century and our city can't figure out how to pick up leaves or sweep the streets with the tax revenue.
it ain't rocket science.
thinking optimistically maybe our new city manager can light a fire under the right person's ass and bring us a few steps closer to a healthy and functionally operative city.
By
Dave W., at 3:20 PM
I saw something yesterday I hadn't seen before. It wasn't a street sweeper, which I see on occasion; it was something different. Slowly crawling up the side street adjacent to our house was a large truck, driving close to the curb very very slowly. Protruding from it's side was a large tube - almost looks like one of those "crawly" tunnels for kids. As the truck moved up the street it vacuumed up the leaves in the gutter. As it inched along, it appears that the driver in the cab was moving the vacuum tube around to get to all of the leaves.
I wish now that I would have run outside to take a picture. It was this weird mechanical snuffleupagus, especially from a distance.
By
Steve Graff, at 10:54 AM
Yeah, we bought a couple of those last year, but haven't implemented a program or schedule so that people know when one of the trucks will be in their neighborhood.
When i lived in Stockton, California in the early 90s (yeah, foreclosure capital of the US) we had a number of trucks with both vacuums and knucklebooms for yard waste. Twice a month you put your yard waste, loose, at the curb, and the big stuff got lifted into the back, and small stuff (grass clippings, leaves) got sucked up. No extra charge for containers or service. During the fall, the streets were vacuumed every week. I'll be interested in seeing whether the street in front of the house on Urban gets cleaned up at no additional charge to the owners.
By
Barry, at 11:04 AM
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