Our incumbent mayor has several problems, ones generally of his own making, but increasingly it is evident that prime among them is a completely unfathomable disregard for public relations – not in the sense of spin (although he could use some of that, too), but in the politically primal way of making his positions understood by the public, and projecting to the city’s residents that he cares to do so.
This ongoing detachment is beginning to look strange, indeed.
At the last City Council meeting, it was obvious that only grudgingly, and in the very limited public forum of the council meeting room, was Mayor Garner willing to reveal his procedural and territorial objections to a code enforcement ordinance, one that he continues to insist he supports in spite of his refusal to sign the City Council’s proposal.
One would imagine that appearance is everything to a successful dry cleaner, but thus far in the drive to put teeth into ordinance enforcement, Mayor Garner has been satisfied to appear as an enemy of order and cleanliness, making not the slightest effort to engage with the electorate, and seeking to ward off any criticism by deploying his favored mantra, which goes something like this:
You just don’t have the right information.
Perhaps someone – anyone – in City Hall would like to take on the task of providing the “right” information? To articulate a coherent platform of goals for the city, as Louisville’s and Jeffersonville’s mayors both have done in recent days? To counter the aura of arrogance and disengagement that is becoming firmly ingrained in the current administration’s attitude toward legitimate criticism?
To put the city in gear and use it for some constructive purpose?
We’re waiting. Anyone in the bunker listening?
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2 comments:
Kevin, if there is a holiday it changes the garbage day. A Monday holiday moves all the garbage days by one day. Monday picked up on Tuesday and so on.
It would be nice if someone would clue us in to the "right" information but maybe they are simply clueless. In my opinion the evidence for clueless is mounting.
Kevin,
Didn't mean to imply that there is not a major problem with garbage pick up.
It is clearly tied to the new trucks. I can't think of a single time prior to the new trucks that my garbage was not picked up. I have lived in several different areas of NA over the years and always had excellent service. When I was selling my grandmother's house in Oakwood and cleaned up the overgrown yard a huge amount of yard waste was picked up before I could even call to request a pick up. And in the older neighborhood where I live now it wasn't unusual for the garbage to be picked up more than once in a week. If a truck was not full they would drive down an alley and empty cans to fill the truck on their way back rather than go in with a partial load.
As far as the holidays, when they could actually get the garbage picked up on the 4 scheduled garbage days the holiday pick up was not a problem. And I think it made much more sense for the scheduled days to be Tue-Fri. It was much easier to figure out the schedules on holiday weeks then.
I have actually seen them picking up garbage on Saturdays and late (10 PM) at night. A good indication that there are problems.
I am not sure how you define privatization but that has it's own set of problems. My "other job" is in the Big City and my co-workers who live in Louisville and surrounding areas have chronic problems with the private garbage collectors--billing problems, missed pick ups, 6 months payment required in advance, etc.
And some people just choose not to have garbage pick up at all. They are the people I see early in the morning when it is still dark stuffing garbage bags into dumpsters belonging to businesses. They don't seem to understand that the businesses have to pay for that service.
If you think New Albany is dirty now imagine what it would look like if having garbage pick up was not compulsory. A small town that my mother lived in depended on private companies and most residents did not subscribe. There were places where garbage bags were stacked up beside houses and garages as high as the roof.
I had a conversation with Tony Toran regarding garbage. I was only asking for some recycling bins but he was telling me his garbage truck troubles. According to him the trucks are leased and abandoning them before the end of the lease period would cost a bundle of money that the city doesn't have. If nothing else this topic should make for some entertaining city council meetings when the lease on the trucks runs out.
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