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Students on Mission Hill are complete slobs
By adamg on Thu, 09/01/2011 - 8:42pm
Kim Janey provides the photographic proof - although Bernie Reeder suggests the mess looks more like the work of scavangers pawing through the leftovers.
Ed. note: On our way back from Allston Christmas festivities today, we swung through Mission Hill. Notable sight: A garbage truck, staffed by eight or nine guys in Northeastern shirts, who were just tossing chairs and couches into the beast's gaping maw.
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Comments
Parker Hill Avenue and
Parker Hill Avenue and Calumet Street were complete messes yesterday. It appeared as if the people moving out just threw everything they didn't want onto the sidewalk.
As anyone who has gone though
As anyone who has gone though this song and dance knows there probably isn't anywhere else to put trash. The regular bins on property will fill up fast and rarely are there dumpsters. So trash bags just start piling up wherever is convient. Bags rip from being run over, punctured by disposable furniture, etc and start spilling everywhere. Unless landlords or the city start providing these neighborhoods with huge dumpsters there isn't much of an alternative.
Make the colleges pay. They
Make the colleges pay. They know the addresses of their students. If we aren't making them pay directly, make them pay indirectly and up their taxes. Although, the dump truck in the article actually sounds like NEU rented a dump truck and hired guys to go around picking up the trash.
Actual garbage truck
Was quite something watching it digest entire couches.
No taxes to"up" Colleges are
No taxes to"up"
Colleges are tax exempt.
Colleges do pay dumbass
Should we go through just how much money higher education dumps into the local economy, directly and indirectly?
There's a reason why the city puts up with it, and further, promotes the schools to grow. Education, Healthcare, Biotech/Tech, and Finance are the biggest pillars of Bostons economy.
And yet still tax-exempt.
And yet still tax-exempt. Who's the dumbass now?
Still you
No shit they're tax exempt. They should be.
Investments in the future and the economy are good things... Unless you're a teabagging nihilist.
incorrect
I can only speak for Northeastern, but Northeastern does not know 100% of the addresses of its students who live off campus. Northeastern requires you provide them with an address, which is initially pulled from your application. This address tends to be the permanent mailing address of students when they were seniors in high school. So if you're smart or lazy and never update your mailing address (which will change at least once a year if you're a NU kid on co-op), you keep your mailing address with mom and dad so important mailings don't go missing.
A garbage truck, actually
NU rented a garbage truck and crew -- City Councilor Ross tweeted about the good job they were doing yesterday. Sounds like someone found a pile between trash runs, took a photo and started an internet meme.
IIRC, today's the city's regular trash pickup in Mission Hill, too. So the stuff's on the sidewalk for at most a day, at least around move-in time.
I wouldn't want to be the guy telling neighbors you're putting a dumpster in the street for a couple of days, either. Parking is hard enough and the smell in warm weather won't win hearts and minds.
Not just Neu
all the other colleges who's students live on the Hill are renting a garbage truck to go around this weekend - Wentworth, MCP, MCAD etc. Not saying it will be the cleanest neighborhood in the City but it will get a lot of attention. I wonder if that happens in Allston too.
"at most a day,"... WRONG
There has been trash on the sidewalks of Mission Hill since Tuesday night (trash is collected Tuesday and Friday).
I guess that trash truck N.U. rented didn't make it up my street.
Slobs Indeed
Yes, it was a total nightmare and coupled with police presence along with closed off streets it looked like a war zone on the Hill. I do agree about the fact that there is very little alternative to the trash situation. It really wouldn't hurt to have the schools do a good deed and provide a number of dumpsters to the community.
.02 cents.
Fine the building owners.
Fine the building owners. They know this is coming every year, and don't take any action to prevent it.
Going after the students is futile exercise.
Prevent what?
This week I've seen several maintenance people sent by the building owners trying to get the trash under control.
There is just such a volume that normal means cannot control the piles. Fines on the students is a waste of time (no real way to collect), fines on the owner is almost as futile. Providing dumpsters is not going to work because of the expense and all the space they take up (plus I don't think you could get the student's to use them anyway).
I like the suggestion by 'Roslindillian' below. Extra trash collection. Preferably the costs could be spread over several groups including the City, the local schools, and the owners of the off campus housing.
Fining the owners would be great
My neighbors rent their place to college students. The students have loud parties and put their trash out on the wrong days and put stuff on the sidewalk so that it's blocking my driveway. The city won't come to address any of this stuff, and when I e-mail the landlord, the landlord tells me to talk to the students myself.
The city supposedly requires rentals to be inspected and certified. I looked on the list and typed in several addresses in my neighborhood and addresses of friends that I know to be rentals, and none were listed, so apparently landlords don't actually do this. I called the city to report my neighbor for renting out a property without approval, and they didn't know what I was talking about. I did an online complaint with the URL, stating that my neighbor was not on the list, and the complaint got closed with no response.
How about if the city does something about crappy landlords? Like, actually enforcing the code that they need to be on that list? Then they could take them off if they're consistently refusing to take care of tenant issues. Once they're off, if they're still renting, they could be fined for this. It would be perfectly legal, because the city is allowed to have rental housing regulations (and allegedly has them) and is allowed to regulate businesses, which renting a property could fall under.
If someone knew that leaving crap all over the sidewalk would result in the landlord being fined, which means they wouldn't get their security deposit back and could have their credit ruined, they'd take the extra few minutes to call and have a charity pick up their furniture, and they'd plan to make sure they had their trash out on trash day instead of whenever the hell they feel like it. People don't routinely trash rental cars and just say "oh, everyone does it" because they know they'll pay if they don't follow the rules.
Sounds like you own
Ever wonder why you got your place so cheap?
there are a lot of ways to help mitigate the problem
The issue, after all, is that people buy furniture which is disposable, allow lots of useless junk to accumulate, and then toss everything when they're moving out, because nobody punishes them for what is a major public nuisance.
For example, the city could engage in public awareness campaigns through news stories and PSAs to encourage people to spend time in August going through their apartment and selling stuff online or chucking it.
Next, classify the trash for what it is: littering/dumping, and blocking the sidewalk. Then write the statute such that littering or dumping in this quantity (or, say, any furniture or "household items") is an arrestable offense.
Give everyone 4 years advance notice, time for:
-the colleges to modify their welcome packets and educate (gasp!) students on how to furnish their dorm rooms more sustainably
-furniture swaps to form on campuses and in neighborhoods/buildings
-people to modify their behavior (for example, by buying furniture with better resale value or worth moving/keeping, finding more of their furniture on craigslist and ebay, etc)
The furniture swaps and whatnot, however, will not be safe until the city starts taking bedbug infestations seriously and stamps them out, instead of slapping cute little stickers on things.
Another thing that would help: the city giving landlords and tenants incentives for non-September-1st lease turnovers.
Desposable?
Maybe. But BU/BC/Berkley are really national colleges, with students from all over.
It's not uncommon to see $500 TV's and $1500 couch sets on the sidewalk as trash because the student had no intention of shipping them back to Cali, and no one wanted to take it off their hands.
But yeah, it is a good allegory to our fuck and chuck culture of the past 20 years.
Opportunity for more used furniture businesses
I have furnished my place for a pittance, by snapping up furniture at fire sale prices during the summer, when there's a huge supply and very little demand.
Spoiled brats
If a college student has a $500 TV or $1500 couch, then daddy will just buy them another one for the NY or SFO condo he's getting them for graduation.
Kim Janey needs to review her geography
The linked photo was not taken on Mission Hill. That is a row of apartments on Columbus Ave. next to the Mass Ave. gas station.
Yes, I had a huge pile of trash outside my former home yesterday. Why? Because the management company sent people to clear out the basement of several year's worth of garbage. Want to know where the money for those ISD fines comes out of? Our security deposit.
Haymarket
The city should treat moving-in day like Haymarket day and partner with the universities to send out garbage trucks to deal with the fall-out. Although it would be nice to hold the students accountable, that it not practical, as they flee town. The landlords can't really be held up for this because its not like they could provide enough trash cans to handle a group of tenants who are literally going to throw away all of their worldly posessions upon leaving. Just as the City deals with the filthy mess made by Haymarket every week, they should send out the trucks to deal with this 2-3 days a year and get the universities who have not built suficient dorm housing to chip in for the cost. An empty garbage truck can hold an incredible amount of trash.
Your plan doesn't stand a chance
It makes too much sense!
;~}
They do
By the weekend you'll see fleets of rash trucks in Allson if you've ever bothered to be around there during "hell weekend"
Not everyone is a student
9/1 shenanigans took place all over Greater Boston yesterday. Not everyone is a student. Tens of thousands of professionals also had moving day yesterday -- Sept. 1 is by far the busiest moving day of the year around the city.
Yup
So much so it's a PITA to find a place of the dreaded 9/1 lease day.
Not to mention a pain to get out of a 9/1 lease to do so.
Was glad years ago when i moved from 9/1 to a spring lease scheduled. It's no fun at all taking 15 hours to move a small 2 bedroom a few miles across the city.
Avoiding the 9/1 moveout
I couldn't believe my good fortune when the woman who wanted to lease my apartment asked if she could move in exactly two months early!
My mind was blown, and I was happy to be the only person on the block moving the last week of June.
Of course, UHaul still managed to not have the truck I requested, even with my super-verified reservation.
Never Ever use UHaul
Especially in Boston. They double book, and you're SOL if your truck isn't there. That's assuming the illiterate junkies they hire get your info down correctly.
Always go Budget, or even Penske
Oh, don't I know it
But I had just been laid-off, and Budget and Penske wanted something like $100 more for a 24 hour, MA to CT rental.
Sorry to hear that!
But, you also now know why. UHaul in Boston never has the intention of getting you a truck. And then they try to keep the security deposit when you "cancel".
A friend just rented one to move to Georgia a month ago. Told him not to and my horror story, but he went with them anyways because they were cheaper. Guess who didn't get a truck come moving day?
Archives available... local historic news tabloids
Archives available... would anyone be interested in local historic news tabloids?... Transferring to other folks will preserve historic materials. Clearing out the archival collections will make more room available.
East Cambridge News April 1988 Volume 41
East Cambridge News June 1988 Volume 42
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter February 1976 No. 78 Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter April 1976 No. 80
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter May 1976
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter June 1976
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter July-August 1976
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter September 1976
Cambridge Tenants' Newsletter December 1976
Chomp May 1974 Vol. 1 No. 3 The Dining-Out Monthly
Chomp May 1976
Chomp June 1976
Chomp July 1976
Chomp August 1976
Chomp September 1976
Genesis2 April 1976 The Newspaper of Boston's Jewish Student and Young Adult Community
Genesis2 October 1976
Genesis2 February 1977
Genesis2 May 1977
Genesis2 September-October 1978
Genesis2 May 1979
Genesis2 February 1980 Vol. 11 No. 5 "an independent voice for Jewish renewal"
Cambridge Historical Society may be interested
The Cambridge Historical Society may be interested in some of these. They are compiling an archive relating to rent control in the city. Contact them at [[email protected]].