It seems every time it gets windy, especially on a garbage pickup day, trash seems to congregate around the house. A number of people have pails without covers and the wind just scatters the trash. There’s even a couple plastic bags stuck in trees which will probably be there for months.
A pretty good sized tree in front of my house has had a broken branch precariously swinging over the sidewalk for over a year. It’s been reported more than once- and there it swings. Last time I filed a report online and at last check a work order has been generated- and every time I look out the front window I watch it swinging in the wind. Legally you cannot cut it yourself (city property). Honestly, if it weren’t so high I would have taken it down myself long ago. At least now it’s reported online with a confirmation email, and if it falls on someone I can’t be blamed for not doing anything about it. Our tax dollars hardly at work!
I know. It’s really frustrating. I had a low-swinging branch last year, hanging like an 8-year old’s loose tooth. I felt like I was being all responsible, taking pictures and calling 311 till my neighbor came out and told me she had called about five times already. This was also not long after that the toddler was killed in Central Park by a falling branch, so I was very surprised it took as long as it did for the city to arrive. You would think a lesson would have been learned. Hardly.
As for trash day around here, we used to have lids for our bins that would go missing or end up in our neighbors’ yards. I wondered if it was because we didn’t tip around the holidays (meant to, but it just never happened — sanitation is out there pretty early and I’ve never really been an early bird). The few times I’ve been up early enough to watch them do their job, I noticed that they would just throw everyone’s bins every which way except for the couple down the block. The husband would be out there, waiting for them to pull up. As soon as he the truck got close, my neighbor would pull his bin out to the street, then he’d move the next one out there, and kind of chatted up the sanitation worker. The next time I was up early enough and heard the truck coming down the street, I went out to try this manouver. The sanitation work pulled the bin away from me, almost angrily, and said, “You can’t do that. It’ll get us both in trouble.” So, I don’t get it. When I first moved here about 12 years ago, one neighbor said you have to grease the wheel and slip them some cash every so often to get them to not destroy your bins. Then I heard that was illegal. As for the lid, we finally drilled an handle onto the bin so they wouldn’t get separated. But my bins never end up with the lid back on top (just swinging off to the side), and so I always end up with trash that people drop in as they pass by. I wonder how it is that there is always someone that early in the morning with trash in need of disposal. I suppose it’s good it ends up in the bin and not on the street. Still gets my bin nasty. At least it’s not a dead cat. That happened before. Hopefully never again.
By me the sanitation passes by in the early AM, lately around 1:00. The time seems to change every so often. For the most part, at least by me, the missing lids are probably due to people not taking in their pails on windy days. My covers, not attached to the pail, stay until the pails need replacing- although I have had to find them down the block a couple times when it was windy. Someone I know not living near me had new pails with attached lids had the lid vanish- probably into the back of the truck. I think it’s a combination of pissed off sanit workers and/ or negligent homeowners. Either way, garbage blows through the streets until it finds my house 🙂 Another possibility is that some people seem to manufacture trash, no idea how anyone can have so much. That may upset a worker or two.
As for tipping the sanit guys, I do around the holidays. Like tipping the mailman, it’s probably illegal- but now days EVERYTHING is illegal. Unless the people on the receiving end turn themselves in nobody will be the wiser.
Eventually when I get tired enough about that branch (sometime I am too patient) I am going to throw a rope around it and pull it down. I just saw a video on getting firewood for camping by doing that.
revelgardener 
It seems every time it gets windy, especially on a garbage pickup day, trash seems to congregate around the house. A number of people have pails without covers and the wind just scatters the trash. There’s even a couple plastic bags stuck in trees which will probably be there for months.
A pretty good sized tree in front of my house has had a broken branch precariously swinging over the sidewalk for over a year. It’s been reported more than once- and there it swings. Last time I filed a report online and at last check a work order has been generated- and every time I look out the front window I watch it swinging in the wind. Legally you cannot cut it yourself (city property). Honestly, if it weren’t so high I would have taken it down myself long ago. At least now it’s reported online with a confirmation email, and if it falls on someone I can’t be blamed for not doing anything about it. Our tax dollars hardly at work!
I know. It’s really frustrating. I had a low-swinging branch last year, hanging like an 8-year old’s loose tooth. I felt like I was being all responsible, taking pictures and calling 311 till my neighbor came out and told me she had called about five times already. This was also not long after that the toddler was killed in Central Park by a falling branch, so I was very surprised it took as long as it did for the city to arrive. You would think a lesson would have been learned. Hardly.
As for trash day around here, we used to have lids for our bins that would go missing or end up in our neighbors’ yards. I wondered if it was because we didn’t tip around the holidays (meant to, but it just never happened — sanitation is out there pretty early and I’ve never really been an early bird). The few times I’ve been up early enough to watch them do their job, I noticed that they would just throw everyone’s bins every which way except for the couple down the block. The husband would be out there, waiting for them to pull up. As soon as he the truck got close, my neighbor would pull his bin out to the street, then he’d move the next one out there, and kind of chatted up the sanitation worker. The next time I was up early enough and heard the truck coming down the street, I went out to try this manouver. The sanitation work pulled the bin away from me, almost angrily, and said, “You can’t do that. It’ll get us both in trouble.” So, I don’t get it. When I first moved here about 12 years ago, one neighbor said you have to grease the wheel and slip them some cash every so often to get them to not destroy your bins. Then I heard that was illegal. As for the lid, we finally drilled an handle onto the bin so they wouldn’t get separated. But my bins never end up with the lid back on top (just swinging off to the side), and so I always end up with trash that people drop in as they pass by. I wonder how it is that there is always someone that early in the morning with trash in need of disposal. I suppose it’s good it ends up in the bin and not on the street. Still gets my bin nasty. At least it’s not a dead cat. That happened before. Hopefully never again.
By me the sanitation passes by in the early AM, lately around 1:00. The time seems to change every so often. For the most part, at least by me, the missing lids are probably due to people not taking in their pails on windy days. My covers, not attached to the pail, stay until the pails need replacing- although I have had to find them down the block a couple times when it was windy. Someone I know not living near me had new pails with attached lids had the lid vanish- probably into the back of the truck. I think it’s a combination of pissed off sanit workers and/ or negligent homeowners. Either way, garbage blows through the streets until it finds my house 🙂 Another possibility is that some people seem to manufacture trash, no idea how anyone can have so much. That may upset a worker or two.
As for tipping the sanit guys, I do around the holidays. Like tipping the mailman, it’s probably illegal- but now days EVERYTHING is illegal. Unless the people on the receiving end turn themselves in nobody will be the wiser.
Eventually when I get tired enough about that branch (sometime I am too patient) I am going to throw a rope around it and pull it down. I just saw a video on getting firewood for camping by doing that.