Washington’s city government has long been a symbol of poor management, wasteful programs, and gross inefficiencies. That image was reaffirmed this month after the city turned a program to replace trash bins into an utter disaster. Shortly before the primary election, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) rushed the new cans out to every citizen. The program was so rushed that there appeared to be no system in place to collect the old cans. Now, it appears that the city has not only been chucking new cans but it has not been recycling the plastic cans — simply pumping them in Virginia for incineration. However, the city charged two people who tried to reuse the discarded bins.
The city delivered more than 200,000 new cans but left old cans on the streets. The result was alleys full of new an old cans. Then the rain washed off the stickers to identify the new cans so that crews began to collect new and old bins for disposal. In the meantime, the city arrested a District artist who decided to take some of the old discarded cans and repurpose them as flowerpots. So, while she was being prosecuted, the city was collecting old and new cans to throw them away. At least 132 truckloads of plastic bins — a third of the 16,000 cans that were to be collected and recycled — were simply dumped in Virginia to be burned.
The city has a curious defense. Since it failed to properly rollout the program, the mix of old and new cans now were clogging streets and presenting safety issues. Thus, the city decided to dump rather than recycle the cans in its rush to deal with its gross negligence. While the new cans came with stickers to put on old cans reading “Take Me” to allow them to be collected, the stickers fell off and left crews uncertain as to which cans were to be collected. Public Works Director William Howland (right) ordered dump trucks to “blitz” the city and treat the cans as garbage to be dumped.
In the meantime, outgoing Mayor Grey was not available — he is traveling to Las Vegas for a taxpayer supported conference. He is also unreachable to deal with another year of appalling school scores for the District and a new investigation showing police officers running red lights with impunity.
The city however charged Mina Karini and a friend with theft after they took the “Take Me” signs literally and repurposed some of the cans as planters. The District argued that by taking the cans, the two acted to “deprive” the city of “property of value” and potential profits from recycling the cans – which of course they did not do.
Source: Washington Post
The two that were charged with theft? That’s a good case for a jury nullification.
City puts a “take me” sign on a garbage can after announcing a campaign to change all garbage cans. Sounds like an entrapment case in the works.
and the idocy goes on
bettykath: I love the idea of community gardens, but I prefer where each family is given a plot. It cuts down on the Tragedy of the Commons. I would love if schools in concrete bound cities could also have some space for the kids to garden. Some kids never get to see how food is grown.
And, you’re right, to a large degree, change has to come from within.
bettykath – what a great idea about painting the cans and turning them into flower pots.
Rob: That video of the cub rescue is one of my favorites.
Seriously . . . sanitation workers could not tell the difference between new cans and old?
This is the problem when it’s so easy to spend taxpayers’ money. And what an environmental waste – incinerating all those cans instead of reusing, recycling, or repurposing. The city could have put on its website contact information for anyone looking for free cans to repurpose them. They would have made great compost bins or planters.
They should own their fiasco, and immediately drop all charges against this innocent person. Who ever heard of it being criminal to reuse what was essentially trash?
Paul, yep. Male bastions.
“We’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
BK, Community gardens are a great example. They are not sponsored by the govt. People just start them, word spreads, and they grow. My wives church started one several years ago. I see them mostly in middle class neighborhoods. The exceptions are Asian and Latino neighborhoods. They come to the US w/ a strong tradition of gardening. The farmers markets around my area have many Hmong and Mexican vendors. Where you don’t see these gardens are in poor black and white neighborhoods.
nick, You seem to want to wait for the politicians to give a sxxx. They don’t and won’t. Changes need to come from the people who want to change their neighborhoods. Once there are some small successes, they can move on to bigger projects. Maybe the flower pots wouldn’t last long, but they could make a big impact on a few kids and maybe, just maybe, an entire neighborhood or two.
I drive through a very small rural community. Someone started a small community garden 2-3 years ago. This year nearly every small space is designated as a community garden. These aren’t spaces set aside for one family or another, but as community spaces, tomatoes here, garlic there, pumpkins/ squash in another plot. Cooperation, you know, that feminist trait that’s so different from competition.
bettykath – much as I hate to use these two examples I will just to show that men can be cooperative as well. Unions and the Grange.
And be sure go get some Prep H innuendo ALEC.
Jerk ALEC state governments.
bettykath, I worked in the inner cities of KC and Chicago. I’ve been to inner cities in many US cities. The problems are so profound and protracted, I have little patience for little band aid solutions that only make people feel better about themselves. I care about the inner city and black folk living in a depraved area. But, until changes are made within the black community, and by the black community, we are just wasting our time and money.
“Naïve” is the implied word for “wide eyed liberals”, not “bad.”
Some folks seem to have a compulsion to frame every discussion with political labels, i.e. bad Democrats, bad liberals, bad Republicans, bad conservatives. “Bad” isn’t always used explicitly, it’s just implied by the snark. Well, I have a news flash, the labels are misleading more often than not and actually show the limited thinking of those who insist on using them in every conversation.
Wide eyed liberals showing just how clueless they are.
“Good leadership” are the key words. The duopoly, or in the case of big cities run by Dems, monopoly, provide the antithesis of “good leadership.” Two choices[duopoly] is not acceptable. One choice id like the old Soviet Union “elections.”
Since the adults will most likely object to the cops beating, tasing, or shooting the vandals, the adults will watch over the pots.
Excellent Bettykath! What fun that would be for the kids. I always hear the mantra “The bigotry of low expectations”, it may apply in this case here.
Move the cops from arresting artists to arresting vandals who mess with the pots.