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As with many a week, it was Tuesday night, the night before my deadline, and I still didn’t have a topic to write about. I stood staring blankly at my son Alex’s first baseball practice with his new Junior League team trying to come up with an idea as I chatted with other team parents Greg, Kristy, Cheryl, and Laura.
I contemplated writing about the cleanup efforts by the City Council on Rosemead Boulevard over the past weekend. Then as I drove down Rosemead Boulevard I noticed that instead of the overgrown weeds that usually adorn the Boulevard, and I appreciated were gone, the temporary no parking signs, that they were so quick to put up, were still there as of this writing, which is late Wednesday night. Over and above that, the fact that this exercise took place a month before an election, smacked of political posturing. The entire cleanup effort appeared to be a blatant attempt to make us forget how ineffective the City Council has been since being elected. I didn’t vote for street cleaners, I voted for City Council members. If they wanted to impress me, a month before the election is a little late to be doing it.
I knew that I had to get back to the office and start brainstorming so I asked Greg and Kristy if they could drop off Alex on their way home. They said yes and as I was saying goodbye I mentioned my topic dilemma and Laura quickly spoke up. “Well I have something for you to write about.” Laura had never offered up this before so considering my situation I said, “Go ahead, let’s hear it.”
“You could write about the people who come up to the front of your house on trash day.” You know like the flyer we all got in the mail that tells everybody that it’s illegal.” Flyer? What flyer? Oh, this must have been one of the city’s many mailing that only goes to residents whose mailing address is Temple City. These are the ones that Temple City residents, whose mailing address is controlled by other cities like San Gabriel, El Monte, and Arcadia never get, and Arcadia residents with Temple City addresses receive. We (and I am obviously one of them) have always been the forgotten Temple City residents.
I asked what had happened to get her so riled up and here is what she told me. Every Tuesday, trash day for many of us, an older woman, with a baby on her back and armed with large plastic trash bags, hits up all of the trash cans on her street rifling through them looking for recyclable items and anything else of interest.
Laura, now empowered by the information in the mystery flyer, with the knowledge that it was illegal to steal somebody else’s trash, went out and confronted the woman. She told her to move on and stay out of her trash. Unfortunately for Laura there was somewhat of a language barrier. While the woman would act like she was moving on, as soon as Laura got back to her kitchen, the woman was back again. By Laura’s count this little scene repeated itself five times, FIVE TIMES!
So Laura got out her flyer and called the phone number listed to report the situation. She was told that they would make a report of it. She was given the impression that somebody would be taking care of the problem. She wasn’t sure who it was she had called, but in the back of my mind I had a sneaking suspicion who it might be. After I left the baseball practice, I kept thinking about her story and how I wanted to see that flyer.
I called Laura the next morning and asked her if she still had the flyer. She said she did and that I was welcome to it. Low and behold, after I read it, my suspicions were right. Well Golly Gee, it was my buddies over in Code Enforcement! Jaime and the gang obviously were looking for something new to do now that the massive workload, reported about in this very paper in the Temple City Focus column, had been eliminated.
Just kidding. I know that can’t be true because the neighbor of mine who is operating a thriving automotive repair business in his front yard is not only still doing it, but he has actually increased his business. I have reported this to Code Enforcement many times over the last three years and they have yet to stop him. I’m beginning to think they are getting their own cars repaired there.
They have found the time, though, to harass the owner of a new restaurant owner in town about hanging a couple of strings of multi-colored flags from his business to tout his grand opening. Why isn’t the City Council and Code Enforcement welcoming our new businesses and supporting them? Why aren’t they focusing, instead, on their reported massive backlog?
If you break it down from a monetary standpoint, which is always the city’s main concern, the trash company that services our area has a system in place for separating out the recyclables in our trash. This, of course, allows them to make more money, which theoretically keeps our residential trash bills low. The monetary aspect is only part of the equation. Even if your trash is out on the street, it is an invasion of privacy for someone to go through it. Our garbage should only be touched by the person we’re leaving it for, the garbage man. Oh I’m sorry, I meant the sanitation engineer.
When I finally read the flyer that Laura so graciously provided, I got the impression that the Code Enforcement Department was looking for the community’s help. But Code Enforcement must realize that it is a problem that requires the involvement of both the citizens and the members of Code Enforcement working together. One, where if we take the time, like Laura and I did, to call and tell you that there is someone regularly violating the city ordinance, then you extend us the common courtesy of responding. Laura called you two weeks ago and she hasn’t seen hide nor hair of you yet, but she has seen her little trash hound coming back. Maybe the City could hire the trash hound for Code Enforcement; at least she’s consistent.
Hey Laura, I have an idea. Let’s just hang up some multi-colored flags. I’ll bet they’ll be there in a heartbeat.
The Shrub Speaks: Surveys show that the vast majority of people do want to participate in democracy. And, ahh, some are feeling intimidated. I urge alls people to vote. Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2005
B.D.’s Response: I don’t even know how to respond.
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