Friday, November 6, 2009

Can You Smell That?

Let me see if I got this right.
When my garbage collection was covered under my regular city tax bill, it was picked up every two weeks without fail. Whatever you had, throw it to the curb and it would get picked up, no questions asked. And in the spring and fall months, a truck would come by every week to pick-up yard waste for a set period of time.
Now the city being the city, decided that some how they could fuck this up royally and charge the tax payer for it as well.
In an attempt to make things more efficient, the city approved garbage bins, which they gave out to each resident and told them, "From now on, these are the only containers that you can use to throw out your trash with. Don't worry, they come in various sizes, we will have one to meet your specific needs. Anything from a medium size or less and we won't even charge you extra for it. Anything larger than a medium and that will be an extra charge on your tax bill each year".
We were told to choose wisely because anything that does not fit in the bins would not be picked up. What you do with that stuff is up to you.
I didn't matter that the system that was already in place seemed to work fine, this new way of doing things was going to save the city money and time. Instead of two men in a truck, trucks could be converted so that one man could do the job without leaving the comfort of his cab.
Do city councillors not live in Toronto? Are they smoking some really good shit? WTF?!
Because we live in a city were people park there cars on the street, the driver still has to get out of his truck to position the bin up to the lift, taking longer then it did before because there is only one person doing the job that used to require two....
Never the less, I make sure to get the extra large bins for both my recycling and garbage needs.
Then the city goes on strike, over garbage.
A strike that drags on for 6 weeks and sees the taxpayer (ME!) hauling their own garbage to the dump themselves. (I'm not even going to mention the bullshit --read strikers--we had to deal with just to dump our trash. I'll save that for another day).
When the garbage men finally go back to work, it was a push to get the garbage off the streets, and rightfully so. But our yard waste, which had been sitting there for 6 weeks, would have to wait another month before they could get to it. And so I waited, and then I waited some more.
After 14 weeks, that's three and a half months with the same stinking yard waste, I just wrapped it up in regular garbage bags and put it into my extra-large city issued garbage bin and sent it along its merry way.
Now here we are today.
No refund or tax rebate for 6 weeks of services not rendered.
A mayor that claims if we don't raise the new garbage tax rate by 2% this year like he says, it will have to be raised over 4% next year when he is gone.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
If I'm going to have to pay more for a service that used to be a lot better when it was included in my regular tax bill and then be told to expect less. REALLY?? Give me a break!
I've done my part, and the city continues to drop the ball when it comes to providing the services we expect from them.
From now on, anything that won't fit in my blue bin will go into the garbage bin and any yard waste that isn't picked up when it is supposed to, will end up in my garbage bin as well.
I'm tired of dealing with your crap, now you can start dealing with mine.

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