Local: It’s time for the Peoria City Council to start talking trash (UPDATED)

I’m closing comments on this post because I don’t want to steal any thunder from C.J, Summers’ excellent article, complete with Beth Akeson’s photo evidence, on why Peorians are forced to place their trash on the sidewalks in front of their homes.

I’m sure I’ve posted on it before. I grew up on Frye Avenue in the East Bluff. With the exception of homes on corner lots, every single house on this street had an alley in the back. And when I was growing up there, that’s where people put their trash. And every week, a garbage truck came along and and picked it up. It was the simplest thing in the world.

Drive down that venerable street on any garbage day and you will see trash bins and other junk piled in front of people’s homes. Why? The only answer I have ever been able to get is that this is the way that Waste Management wants it, and it’s not up to the city to tell them otherwise.

Excuse me? Isn’t Waste Management a contractor hired by the city, and therefore be required to meet standards set by the city? If the city council so chooses, can it NOT pass an ordinance requiring that trash bins be placed in the alley behind homes where there IS an alley? And wouldn’t WM be forced to start servicing the alleys — which waste haulers all over the known universe do every day (except in Peoria, apparently)? And wouldn’t WM want to comply, in order to be considered when the contract comes up for renewal?

But I don’t blame Waste Management. It’s just a business, albeit a big one. Of course they are going to want to do as little as possible for as much money as possible. If they think they can save a few man hours by making people throw their trash on the sidewalks or streets in front of their homes, instead of in the alleys behind their homes were tradition and logic say it belongs. And they do contribute services to neighborhood groups when they do clean-ups.

No. I blame the Peoria City Council.

Call me crazy, but I think that when you elect people to represent your neighborhood’s interests, that’s what they ought to do, instead of worrying about hurting the feelings of giant corporations like Waste Management. Yet time and again, I’ve seen seen councils past and present approve agreements that are brought to them by city staffers as the best that can be done when they really are not. The excuse often is that the city has to look at the needs of the business. Meanwhile, the businesses are looking to get every dime they can.

Individually, council members complain when the details don’t work in the city’s favor. Occasionally, and recently, they have been fighting back. The recent insistence on a second look at the health care contract comes to mind. Too bad that six out of 11 council members couldn’t have put their collective foot down back when the Waste Management agreement was approved.

But this status quo with Waste Management is untenable, and the pictures on C.J.’a site proves it. We cannot seriously think we are making strides in cleaning up Peoria after decades of neglect while we still make residents put their trash in front of their homes when there’s a perfectly good alley behind their homes.

I don’t know about other blogger in Peoria, but THIS blogger is going to keep revisiting this subject from now until the upcoming municipal election, which start less than a year from now.

That means 11 months and more of: ‘So tell me, council member, what have YOU done about the trash problem?’

Remember this question, and ask it as often as you can.

UPDATE: Yes, I am aware that the pictures on C.J.’s site are of homes without alleys. My point is that we need to clean up Peoria by requiring trash pick in alleys WHEN THERE ARE ALLEYS. Thank you.

Tags: Litter, Peoria City Council, sidewalks, trash removal, Waste Management