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Citizen complaint of the day: The angry, screaming garbagemen of the South End
By adamg on Tue, 04/02/2013 - 11:45am
An outraged citizen reports on how trash pickup was done along Tremont Street in the South End the other day:
An old woman was picking through trash left out this morning when city trash pickup arrived. The workers started screaming "f***k you! Get out of here!" Over and over again, so loud that I heard it inside my home quite clearly. They then THREW HER CART across the sidewalk and into the building. This behavior is appalling. No human being deserves to be treated like that. A city employee should be held to better standards.
The city's marked the case closed: "The supervisor in waste reduction is looking into the matter, finding out what truck did this area, and we will follow up with contract supervisor as well."
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
In fairness to the
In fairness to the garbagemen, they have to deal with trash that's strewn about due to people rummaging through them, making their job even more difficult and disgusting than it already is.
I'm not saying it justifies them cursing the woman out, but I can understand their frustration.
They DON'T deal with it though
There are a few conscientious sanitation workers who I've seen pull out the broom and dustpan that hang on the side of the truck, but so many of them will toss a bag into the back, miss and hit the side of the truck, and do nothing about the stuff that falls out when the bag breaks.
Context is useful...
While I don't agree with the alleged actions of the workers, I will say that there needs to be some accountability on the part of folks who do pick through the trash.
I certainly don't begrudge their position in life or the work that they do, but there does tend to be a lot of diffusion of the trash as a result of the work of 'can-hunters'.
Clearly it creates extra work for the sanitation workers who in this cases acted out their frustration.
Methinks...
These guys were only talking trash....
We are all nannies now.
We are all nannies now.
Wouldn't have to be
We wouldn't need so many nannies if there weren't so many big babies throwing tantrums.
Trash the Trashworkers
This is toddler level we have for many of our city workers. I am a city worker and this kind of behavior against a person collecting bottles and tins to help support herself and her family embarrases the hell out of me. Fire the two year olds that behaved this way toward the woman.
They're not city
They're not city workers.theyre workers for a trash company that has the contract to pick up the trash from the city.
I hate these "bottle dudes and dudettes"
rip open trash bags and throw garbage all over the sidewalk. I would have thrown her cart into the back of the garbage truck.
What does "Case Closed" mean?
Somebody needs to learn trouble ticket 101.
A case shouldn't be closed until the problem is either fixed or a determination is made that it won't be fixed. A ticket shouldn't be closed while someone is still investigating the complaint. This is a recurrent issue with Citizens Connect.
Case closed
Think of Citizen's Connect not as a window into how city government works at getting to the bottom of every problem but as a bulletin board for everyone to lodge their complaints with the city.
Cases are opened as soon as anyone reports something to the board. When the city looks at the board, it tries to figure out where to direct the notes to get action on those things that are reasonable and require action. If it's not reasonable, doesn't require actual action (like just a whine/rant), or has been passed on to the appropriate department, the case is closed.
Sometimes they'll leave a case open if they are waiting for some kind of feedback from within. It seems like some departments (like graffiti cleanup) might also be able to use the board as a kind of inventory of jobs to do and cases remain open until they do them. But ultimately once the complaint has been filtered and then shuffled to the right body, it's closed because the city is on top of it (or dismissed it for some reason).
But why not make it a real ticket system?
There are existing ticket systems (for example, the systems used by the Apache project and other open source initiatives) that are entirely capable of absorbing large number of random rants and whines, but that still work properly.
If a ticket is just a whine or a rant, it can be closed immediately as "Not something we're going to fix." In all other cases, the ticket ought to be left open. In particular, the case when it has been passed on to the appropriate department, that's when you most want the ticket to stay open -- that's at the very essence of a ticket system: it maintains end-to-end visibility into how problems are getting resolved; it allows the city to measure its own effectiveness, and it preserves accountability.
The system (as does any business process) needs to be looked at from the perspective of those whom it is intended to serve: in this case the citizen. If you report a legitimate problem (say a burned out street light) and the Citizen Connect staffer passes the message to the street light department, then maybe from his perspective the problem is resolved (i.e., the buck has been passed) but from your perspective, nothing at all has happened. From your perspective, the case is closed when the light is fixed or when the city explains why it's not going to fix it.
Why is the case closed, if
Why is the case closed, if they're still looking into it, and going to follow up later?
Case Closed
The case is closed because the stubborn old hag is no longer in the worker's way. If she got out of his way like a normal person, he wouldn't have to say anything. He had to yell it multiple times because he has a job to do, he can't physically move her and she clearly won't listen. She pissed him off so he tossed her cartridge aside. Maybe she'll learn to not get in the way of the sanitation workers.
Yeah! Stupid old hag!
How dare she try and survive by not being an asshole with a union behind her! Fucking old bitch and her ink cartridge!
Maybe if he loses his job
Maybe if he loses his job then he can be the one that interferes with the livelihoods of others. But then it will be okay because he's just trying to survive without a job, it's only the person with a job trying to get by that can be called out for being an asshole.
Blame the SE residents (actually anyone in Boston that is lazy)
Heres a thought! Why don't people separate their cans and recycling and put it in the proper containers! That would stop the “can hunters” from tearing apart the trash and causing this situation!! Stop feeling “entitled” and do your part to help the community and environment.
We Already Do
Many people do put recycling in the proper containers (recycling bin or clear bag), but that doesn't stop these people from ripping open the trash bags "just in case."
Some of us do!
I put all recyclables in a clear plastic bag, with the exception of cans and bottles, which I place in a blue bin (where I also put junk mail, as it is stored in the mudroom near the mail slot). This still doesn't always stop them from being ripped open, it usually does though. I also put my rubbish and recyclables out in the morning instead of the night before.
In defense of most of the can collectors though, I do notice that many take the time to retie the bags after they root through them. This past Monday night I heard the familiar clinking of bottles and when I looked out the window, I saw a man who had just finished going through a recycling bag left out by my downstairs neighbor, just as he was neatly tying the bag up. When I looked out a few minutes later, it looked like it had never been touched.
After living in Boston for
After living in Boston for several decades, I've lost sympathy for the people who pick through the trash. They steal the brand new trash can liners as soon as we put them out, and tear apart the ones at the curb. Not small holes to get a can, but long gashes to open up the entire bag so they can rummage through the entire plastic trash bag, and then leave the trash scattered everywhere. During the warmer weather, a dozen or more "pickers" will go through our trash every day, and by the end of the day, they will have spilled enough trash so we have to clean the area every day. The residue from all the spilled trash attracts rats which eventually gets into our building. The city of Boston has enough public assistance for the poor so this scavenging should not be needed or tolerated.