It seems unfair for the city to refuse to pick up our garbage for several weeks and then to send an inspector around threatening to fine us for having too much garbage sitting outside the house. We live in the house and don't want the garbage to be there either.
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Dear Washington, DC
05 May 2008 04:22 pm
Comments (28)
DC once gave me a ticket for being parked in my own driveway. Apparently I was "Parked on Private Property".
I tried to get a divorce on the grounds that I was having sex with my wife. She told me I had to take out the trash anyway.
And it all comes full circle.
You should just bike it over to the dump, Matt.
Just wait until they're running your health care.
Don't get sick and don't make so much garbage.
Should have thought about that before making so much garbage.
Should have thought of that before you lived in the city that Marion Barry made famous.
Yep, that seems fairly unfair.
The obvious solution: high speed rail.
Simple. Make sure there's no incriminating evidence in your trash, pick the neighbor you like least, and then dump it in your neighbor's front yard. It's the American Way.
Ok - I'll bite - WHY did the city "refuse" to pick up your trash?
Remember, Matt: one man's garbage is another man's trash.
Why did the city "refuse" to pick up your trash?
Hillary called for a garbage tax holiday.
It seems unfair for the city to refuse to pick up our garbage for several weeks
After, well, fewer than "several" weeks, didn't it occur to you to pick up the phone and call someone to ask them why they are not picking up your garbage and what you could do about it?
I mean, I understand your aversion to phone calls, but that's taking it a little too far.
Al, you don't live in DC, do you?
But -- think about it from a Rawlsian perspective: the garbage man is poorer and less well off socially than you, so overall it makes the most unfortunate person in society better off if slacks off and doesn't pick up your trash.
Shoulda dipped into the trust fund for a U-Haul.
Excerpted from "True Stories from the Capital City of America's Global Empire", a volume providing endless amusement and disbelief for future generations around the world...
They're not picking up his trash because his book isn't in it - and they've seen his book.
I saw this episode of The Simpsons already.
When I lived in the District, I once received a ticket for parking on a street which I had never heard of nor driven on, and which according to all available D.C. maps did not exist. A few years later, I lawfully parked my car in a spot on Van Ness Street, NW reserved for holders of the required permit, which I possessed and displayed. While I was at work, the government came to my street, took down the sign, posted a "No Parking" sign, and gave me a ticket. I live in Maryland now.
When I lived in the District, I once received a ticket for parking on a street which I had never heard of nor driven on, and which according to all available D.C. maps did not exist. A few years later, I lawfully parked my car in a spot on Van Ness Street, NW reserved for holders of the required zone permit, which I possessed and displayed. While I was at work, the government came to my street, took down the sign, posted a "No Parking" sign, and gave me a ticket. I live in Maryland now.
Reading all this, I'm happy to be living in Maryland as well. I just wish my neighbors would stop stealing my recycling bin (can't seem to get another one out of Montgomery County either). At least they use it and I get it back every couple of weeks.
I must be the luckiest District resident in the world, because they've always taken away my garbage on time, I've never gotten a parking ticket I didn't deserve, and my dealings with the DMV have been uniformly pleasant. And no, I'm not Adrian Fenty.
Can we do mistaken DC arrest stories now?
I got 'taken into investigatory custody' back in 1990 in DC and got released without not too much hassle after a lineup. When I pulled into the parking garage of the apartment building I was living in, I told the stories to the first person I saw. His response: 'that happened to me last year.'
And yes, recent Harvard grad and World Bank employee that I was at the time, I was never too concerned that I'd go down for knifing a DC drug dealer.
On reflection, not really a lineup, more a 'at a distance viewing' on the street.
But I did learn that cases of mistaken identity can be quite dangerous even if you are harmless and innocent: the police are scared you may shoot them and want to know where your hands are at all times, especially if you are in a car. Theoretically I knew this too, but I didn't clue in when the situation came up unexpectedly.
See, if you lived in a rural area, you'd have competing private garbage collection firms fighting for your business, and this wouldn't happen. Got at least two competing garbage trucks coming down my street, and if one annoys you, you can switch to the other with a phone call.
Just one of the advantages of NOT living in the city, with all your services handled by the government. ;)
Got at least two competing garbage trucks coming down my street, and if one annoys you, you can switch to the other with a phone call.
Isn't that usually when the first guy comes around and breaks your kneecaps? I've seen enough "Sopranos" to suspect that private utilities in competition bring their own set of problems.
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Heads in the Sand
Should have thought about that before making so much garbage.
Posted by Seitz | May 5, 2008 4:34 PM