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City: Not much we can do if your neighbors are jerky slobs who don't look after their pets
By adamg on Fri, 12/27/2013 - 10:07am
A couple days ago, we pointed to an East Boston citizen's complaint about his or her disgustingly gross street.
The city has replied:
Sorry sir but the sidewalk is the home owners resonsibility. we at pwd work very hard at a lot of things we are not here to take care of your neighbors dogs and cats if you would like to talk to me about this you can call our office at 617-635- 7525.
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Comments
Contact MWRA?
Pet waste results in a tremendous amount of fecal coliform in the waterways of Eastern MA due to run off.
They might have some chance of getting action from MWRA if this is a truly nasty collection.
Maybe not rely on quasi-government to clean up after pets?
Just a thought. Perhaps this person could talk to their neighbor.
Why do you assume ...
1. that they haven't, and
2. that this would end well?
Just do it.
You could clean that up in less than 60 seconds with a shovel, you wouldn't even have to bend over.
Maybe this is why our taxes are so high, because people would rather spend more time complaining to the city than it would have taken to fix the problem in the first place. When it snows the sidewalk in front of your building is your responsibility, why should trash be any different?
Just Don't Do It
The only thing you should be using that shovel for is to bury the dead bodies of the offending dog and owner after punishing them for their crimes.
Sorry, my shovel is reserved
Sorry, my shovel is reserved for burying offending cyclists.
Nice username, Joan Vennochi.
Derp a derp
You are supposed to call that
You are supposed to call that "composting" organic fertilizer for our city's urban farming.
Everybody poops
I'm all for going after the owner but what did the dog do wrong?
Cats > Dogs
Cats generally bury their poop, even outdoors.
The complaint was about the street, too
The photo was merely illustrative.
Did Your Parents Not Teach You To Have Any Self Respect?
We've been pickingup the trash and dog shit and unburied cat shit that lands in the street, sidewalk, that blows into or is deposited on front of our house and in our yard, year round, for the 23 years, 11 months, and 2 days we have owned our house in JP. And we did it as renters before that. It makes for a nicer, more pleasant place to live. Try it, it's not gonna kill you.
Talk to the neighbor how?
The person doesn't have the legal authority to write a citation or impose a fine. Are you advocating for vigilante punishment? It's not like the neighbor doesn't know that he's breaking the law; how is talking to him going to tell him anything he doesn't already know?
Re-Read The Complaint
I believe the complaint wasn't about the tree pit, but about both the sidewalk and the street. The picture was illustrative, but not the main subject of the post. Also, the person references that the previous complaint was closed out as taken care of, but it wasn't.
Instead of being a concerned citizen be a constructive one.
The streets don't get swept in the winter, that's nothing new, and when has anyone seen the city go down residential streets sweeping the sidewalks? Sidewalks are the building owners responsibility for snow and it should be that way for trash. Instead of being a concerned citizen try being a constructive one.
During Off-Season...
If one notices that there is an egregious amount of trash on one's street, a call to the Mayor's Hotline always got it resolved. Nothing wrong with that. Plus, makes for better conditions for snow plows. Just because street cleaning is over for the season doesn't negate the need for the touch up now and then. The residents in the North End complained so much, that now sreet cleaning is year round.
Not for not
You should have gave them a photo of the street instead of the sidewalk. It does look like you're complaining about the sidewalk. Sidewalks are not the city's concern, even in Beacon Hill and the Back Bay.
So, how did the conversation with whoever gave you their phone number go?
I erred
It's not that the city isn't concerned about sidewalks, it's that they won't clean them. ISD, on the other hand, could cite property owners if the sidewalks are truly a mess (as opposed to the odd candy wrapper on the street.)
Some places mail it back to where it came from:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/07/spanish-town-mails-dog-poop-back-to-...
Who are they hiring at PWD?
Who the heck works at PWD? That is an extremely unprofessional communique. The point they are trying to make might be accurate, but it is put in an extremely unprofessional (and just plain rude) manner, not to mention the mistakes in punctuation, capitalization and usage. What a disgrace.
The City
You all are missing the point... the city needs to step up to the plate around East Boston. The place is littered with trash and looks like a third world country. We need the city to start ticketing property owners and residents who litter. I am glad someone decided to put preasure on the city by putting in this request, if the sidewalk looked this bad in Beacon Hill the city would be all over it.
Seriously, It'd be great if
Seriously, It'd be great if the landowners cleaned up their sidewalks instead of asking the city to do it. But have you been to eastie? Its full of renters of buildings owned by absentee landlords who could care less about what the neighborhood looks like. The landowners don't get fined for dirty sidewalks, or if they do its not enough to make the message clear.
I'm sure its easy to say "oh just man up have the landlords clean the sidewalks" from Cambridge, Brighton or Brookline but its a totally different situation here.
Who's throwing
All this trash in the street? One can assume it is passersby and people who live in the neighborhood. It's piggish behavior. People need to learn how to a. Not litter and b. Clean up after themselves. Maybe Eastie residents need to form a neighborhood Clean and Green organization.
Trash is the biggest complaint in East Boston....
....according to the city's neighborhood coordinator.
http://next.cityofboston.gov/page/2
Toss it in the street
Toss it in the street, thats what we have been doing.
Since Menino has the city clean and plow the streets but ignores the sidewalks, as the city worker explained, its best to toss trash and pet waste that people leave on the sidewalk in the street,. Presto, then the city will take care of it.
Annoyingly unhelpful response from the city.
That's a strikingly hostile response from the city. Either the street is dirty because the trash is not being picked up properly, in which case it is the city's responsibility to pick up the trash, or because the neighbor is littering and creating a nuisance, in which case it is the city's job to enforce the law.
The entire point of something like "Citizens' connect." is that the individual reporting a problem shouldn't have to worry about whether the problem belongs in the hands of streets and sanitation, or transportation, or ISD code enforcement -- the front line people who dispatch the report are supposed to figure that out and get the right agency on the job.
"That's not my department" is *never* an acceptable response to a member of the public reporting a problem through what is supposed to be a central dispatch desk.
Public Works Department
The PWD response is illiterate. Also, walk the streets in Eagle Hill in East Boston sometime (go in pairs to avoid getting mugged). They are awash in garbage.
If only their work habits ran
If only their work habits ran on like their sentences do.