Fuck the city of Longview. I’ve been renting this house for almost a year now. My cousin lived here before I did. I’ve kept the grass mowed, kept everything clean, and been a pretty good tenant I’d say. This morning I got a letter from the city about my trash. The trash I leave to be picked up is always bagged (or boxed) and put in a big trash can. I put it out at the curb the night before and nobody fucks with it. The letter says that my trash days are Monday and Thursday and that I am to leave the trash out those mornings, not other days or even the night before, and I should keep it behind my residence any other time. Apparently there’s some city ordinance against it and after almost two years of me and my cousin living here, they decided to let me know. What the fuck? Since when does the city get off telling me where and when I should put my trash? Even my landlord thinks it’s retarded. This is the kind of shit I’d expect the nearby city of Tyler to pull, but not Longview. It’s my fucking house. Well I don’t own it but the owner isn’t complaining. I have to be at work a lot earlier than those fucks and it’s very inconvenient to have to do it before work. I have no intentions of stopping leaving my trash out the night before. They can kiss my mother fucking ass.
I have a quick question. They can’t hold the owner of the house responsible, can they? I don’t want any shit with them. Like I said, they don’t really care. They said I’ve been a good tenant and kept everything nice and it’s a ridiculous complaint. But if they get a fine or something, that may change and I don’t want it to. I’m prepared for shit from the city government though. Considering it took them so long to say anything this time, I think there’s a good chance I won’t hear anything from them again. If they do give me a citation, then I’ll get a lawyer and fight it in court. And if I’m still found guilty, I’d rather spend a night in jail than pay the city for such a fucked up citation.
When did Americans turn into a bunch of pussies to put up with such restrictive laws as this?
My experience with stuff like this has been that typically you get these types of notices when a neighbor has complained. Pissed anyone off on your block recently?
Not that I know of. I’m on pretty friendly terms with my neighbors, the ones I’ve talked to anyway. I haven’t been loud and I make sure to go slow on my sportbike around here. I’d say I’m the quiet neighbor who stays to himself.
My immediate thought. He need not have pissed someone off though. All it takes is one jackass with too much time on his or her hands. In my experience, these jackasses are frequently retired people.
Cities will also do sweeps of neighborhoods to reinforce regulations that have fallen out of people’s memories. If that’s the case, then there may well be a second sweep scheduled, with tickets being left for the residents.
You may want to consider looking up the statute or regulation in question to see if they’re interpreting it properly. They probably are, but I don’t see the point of not allowing people to put their trash out the night before.
We had a similar sweep in our area and were told not to keep the bins on the front porch. They have to be around the side of the house out of sight. The neighbors on the west got dinged for leaving theirs out on the curb. Within a few months theirs were back on the curb and they’ve been there, now, for at least a year.
Oh, and visible trash bins are considered to be low level ‘blight’. Better than a broken window or a junker on your lawn, but maybe as bad as a lawn that should have been mowed a week and a half ago. If they have the bin reg, they probably have one for lawn length as well. And for weeds.
If it was me, I’d play along for a couple of months and then slide back into taking it out at night, and see what happens. There’s also the possibility of going to the City Council and asking why City funds are being spent trying to keep people from putting their bins out the night before when funds are so tight. Not what I’d do, but you could take a shot.
Restrictions on leaving out trash on non-trash days are perfectly normal, and IMO very reasonable. Trash at the curb is unsightly, and vulnerable to being scattered by wind or animals, and tends to attract vermin. I don’t know about my city, but my association sends people nasty letters if they leave their trash out a day in advance.
However, I’ve never heard of a restriction against leaving it out the night before pickup. That does not seem reasonable.
Homeowners associations are a bunch of nazis. I would never buy a house under one, even if it means living in the middle of nowhere. Besides that, it’s not the city’s job to make sure my yard looks pretty. I do make it look pretty, my landlords said I make it look pretty, and the city can go fuck themselves if they disagree.
It is the city’s job, however, to pick up stray dogs and wild animals. That’s what animal control is for. And they seemed to be on the ball when my dog escaped the back yard. He was picked up the same day. I’ve never had any animals get into my trash.
That is a very stupid law. I can think of tons of reasons why you can’t put the trash out same day. Maybe you are elderly and only have the care to take care to take care of it the night before. Maybe you work screwy hours and long night shifts etc. Longview is a perfectly fine place but it isn’t world renowned for its shear beauty. Psychological profiling suggests it is an older woman. They bite down and they won’t let go and will call authorities over and over again if you don’t comply. That is all they have to do so they abuse innocent people like yourself.
It ain’t just Longview. Boston considered a ban on leaving trash out overnight. Too much rats and rummaging, they sez. A lot of cities already ban putting out the trash before 6 PM on the night before pickup, and I imagine we’ll start seeing more overnight bans in various places.
I think it’s a pain in the ass to have to put out trash in the early morning too, but if they say there’s a rat problem I kinda don’t want to encourage it. A better solution IMHO is to require (or better yet, provide) sturdy rat-proof trash barrels and require that all trash must be placed in them. No chewable plastic bags sitting naked on the curb.
Well just to reiterate, I don’t sit plastic bags naked next to the road like most of my neighbors. Mine goes in one of those big plastic ~50 gallon trash cans. I don’t know if it’s rat proof or not, but so far no animals have scattered my trash. I thought that would actually make the city happy.
I’m a libertarian? News to me. I’ve never described myself as such.
And I did read the OP for comprehension, thank you very much. I don’t like trash. A trash can by the curb is unsightly. I live on a street with alleys, so I never have to see trash cans by the curb.
Actually, it IS the city’s job to have property maintenance codes. “Pretty” is in the eye of the beholder, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a decent-sized town that didn’t have regulations about property upkeep at a minimum level.
I would find it difficult to comply with this trash ordinance, but if, as others have said, the city has experienced pest problems in the past, that’s a legit reason to have it. Don’t like the ordinance? Contact your councilperson about getting it changed.
P.S. You have trash pickup TWICE per week? faint I’ve never lived anywhere where it wasn’t once per week. I’m lucky to have recycling pickup, but that’s only once per MONTH, and not everyone in the county has it at all. Count yer blessings.
I don’t understand the idea that a pest problem will be eradicated by keeping the trash behind the house. The OP has said that the trash is in a trash bag in a trash can–what difference does it make if it is behind the house or in front of the house? 20 meters is my estimate. As a matter of fact, I would prefer the guy who puts his rubbish out in front the night before, to be picked up the next morning, rather than the one who lets it build up out back to be infested.