Good News From Beacon Hill Winter Dance

I slipped into my (rented) tux last night and attended the Beacon Hill Winter Dance, organized by the Beacon Hill Civic Association. This year's gala shifted locations to the new Mandarin Hotel in Boston's Back Bay (last year the venue was the Liberty Hotel on Beacon Hill).

It was great to see so many familiar faces. In addition to numerous fellow BHCA board members, including Lori Bate, Ania Camargo, Steve Young, Meghan Haggerty, Colin Zick and others, I ran into State Representatives Marty Walz and Aaron Michlewitz.

Representative Michlewitz had great news from the current House session. The House passed the infamous green ticket law, which will allow municipalities to enhance enforcement efforts for certain local rules. In Boston, this would mean the city could connect trash and other violations (which are noted by the issuing of "green tickets") to a property's tax bill. A bill including this local-option provision passed both the House and Senate a little over a year ago but suffered the fate of a "pocket veto" by the Governor, who let the bill sit on his desk.

As I have written about in this space in the past, better enforcement of green tickets is absolutely essential for making the city's streets cleaner. To this point, green ticket violations are largely ignored, especially in densely populated areas of the city, such as Beacon Hill, where many property owners of large buildings live elsewhere and are not often held accountable for the actions of their tenants.

Rep. Michlewitz says he expects the Senate to pass the law soon, and the Governor has indicated he would sign it. Bravo to both Representatives Michlewitz and Walz for their support of this effort.

How to Clean Up Beacon Hill: Towing is Just a Start

Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan is proposing that Boston do away with towing cars on street cleaning days. It's a bad idea.

Trust me, trash is something I know well. It's the biggest issue for us downtown residents who live on Beacon Hill. Since I joined the Clean Beacon Hill committee, I have been volunteering personal time to trash since 2000. I should put that on a business card or something. Nine years and counting.

Councilor Linehan's proposal is a populist reaction to a policy put in place by Boston's Chief of Public Works, Dennis Royer, two years ago, which called for strict enforcement of posted street sweeping signs-- including towing on street cleaning days. It's not exactly a strict policy, since the street sweeping signs are very clear as to when street sweeping takes place and mark the street as a "tow zone" during that time. Councilor Linehan would like to do away with the towing, and instead simply give out tickets with a higher fine. His constituents will like the idea. Except it won't work.

Towing is a massive inconvenience. The Boston tow lot is not accessible by public transportation. A typical tow victim needs to hire a cab to get to it. Once there, the fines can be high, starting with a 75-dollar ticket and then charges for being in the tow lot. Karen Cord Taylor of the Beacon Hill Times quipped recently that at least there's an ATM machine at the lot now. Quite a novelty.

It's good that towing causes all sorts of pain, since that makes it an effective deterrent. The proof is on the streets. I took a walk on Beacon Hill today, and relatively speaking, it's pretty darn clean. It is clean because the street cleaning program is working better than it has before. And that's because cars are moved on street cleaning days.

Anderson Street at Revere looking North
Beacon Hill, Boston
April 18, 2009

Prior to Chief Royer's strict policy, cars would never move. Despite raising ticket fines several years ago, the charges never worked. Residents figured the fine was like paying for parking (especially since the Boston resident parking sticker doesn't cost anything).

Towing changed all that. Suddenly residents had an easier time remembering to look at the posted street sweeping signs, and remembering what the signs said. With the cars not there, the street sweepers can reach the curb. And when they reach the curb, they work well.

I have said many times that if towing doesn't happen, there's no reason to have the street sweeping program at all. Because it's a complete waste of money.

To be sure, street sweeping is just the first leg in a three-legged-stool solution that is necessary to bring real cleanliness to Beacon Hill. The other legs are: first, enforcement of the "green tickets" that ISD issues to trash scofflaws, and second, switching to two days of trash pick up on Beacon Hill.

I have written about the green ticket issue before. Boston's Inspectional Service Department (ISD) writes green tickets to residents that improperly dispose their trash. Unfortunately, the tickets have no teeth and are not enforced. Boston's Mayor Tom Menino, City Council President Mike Ross and State Representative Marty Walz, among others, would like to pass a state law that allows Boston to connect the green ticket fines to property owner liens; the best scenario would be if the fines show up on individual tax bills. Unfortunately, Governor Patrick wouldn't sign the law when it passed in December. In fact, he didn't do anything with it, and the legislation suffered the ignominious "pocket veto." I am hoping the law is passed again this year and is signed by Governor Patrick.

The second issue is far more emotional, and it's one I have thought about a lot. Beacon Hill has enjoyed three days of trash pick up for some time. It has its advantages, especially if you live in a neighborhood where small is the norm-- or as I put it, everything in my apartment is a "miniature" version of itself.

The problem is three days of trash pick up means crap is on the side of the street for 42 hours a week. That is one fourth of the week. No joke. Trash is on the street curbs roughly one-quarter of every week on tony Beacon Hill. We have tried to address this issue as a community by shortening the amount of time one can place trash on the curb (what's called same-day pick-up). The problem is this really doesn't give much time for residents to put trash out. The Beacon Hill Civic Association, of which I am a board member, supports same-day pick-up, but we are also trying to move the start of trash pick-up on the hill to 9 a.m. in the morning to give residents two more hours.

Removing a day of pick up cuts down the amount of time trash is put at the curb by a third. From 42-28 hours. Wham. Just like that. And an informal survey I am conducting on the hill is showing that most neighbors would be ok with it.

Councilor Linehan, I don't like your populist idea. Street sweeping is working now better than ever before. And with green ticket enforcement and two days of pick up (instead of three), we can all make our streets far cleaner than they have been.

Cleaning Up Beacon Hill

Perhaps the day will come soon when trash is not on the side of my street for 42 hours of each week.

The Beacon Hill Civic Association is pressing yet again for what's called "same-day" pick up, which means neighbors are required to place their trash on the curb only on the day it is picked up. The trash trucks roll through Beacon Hill starting at 7 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Same-day pick up means no trash will be allowed on the street before midnight on those days.

I am a big fan of same-day pick up. With it, the time that ugly, unsightly trash bags will be on the sides of neighborhood streets will be cut in half. (The 42 hours number above is derived from trash being permitted at the curb from 5 p.m. on-- the current rules.)

The Beacon Hill Civic Association is circulating an online petition to gauge neighborhood support for the same-day concept. I have signed it.

In reality, there is a portion of the state sanitary code that requires trash to be outside of homes only on the day of pick up, the BHCA is asking for enforcement of this portion of the code. (Hence the language of the petition).

Of course, same-day pick up is only effective if Boston's Inspectional Services Department can enforce the law. A similar effort eight years ago was not successful, primarily because the green tickets ISD issues to trash scofflaws are not enforced strictly in the city.

City Council President Mike Ross, State Representative Marty Walz and others support a state law that will give Boston new ways to enforce green ticket penalties. The law suffered on the Governor's desk last month and was subject to a pocket veto. I am hoping it will be passed, and signed, later in 2009.

I also recently spotted the video below of a new street sweeper that the city is investigating. It uses far less water than a typical street sweeper. It's great that Boston Public Works and Transportation Chief Dennis Royer is investigating these types of new vehicles.

Enforcing Green Tickets in Boston

A law awaiting signature on Mass. Governor Deval Patrick's desk will make the streets of Boston much cleaner.

The Boston Inspectional Services Department (ISD) issues tickets to those who improperly dispose their trash. If they spot a bag of trash put out on the street on a non-scheduled trash pick up day, they will dig through the bag of trash, find a piece of mail to identify the owner, and write a ticket for the offender. Around the city, they are known as "green tickets." That color ticket is issued by ISD.

It's dirty work, no pun intended, but it is extremely important. Boston residents are notorious for ignoring the rules regarding trash pick up, which are already very generous. Generally, neighbors can put trash on the street after 5 p.m. the day before trash is collected. As pick up begins at 7 a.m. in the morning, this means refuse spends up to 14 hours on the side of the street.

On Beacon Hill, neighbors have proposed innovative programs to restrict the pick-up rules. Many, including your truly, wait until the morning to put out our trash. We have trash pick up three days a week, so these efforts are meant to curtail the significant amount of time that the streets are untidy.

Earlier this decade, The Beacon Hill Civic Association asked the city to enforce what's called "same-day pick up," which means that trash cannot be put at the curb until midnight on the day it's collected. We asked for this within Beacon Hill only. It was an effort I supported and was a part of, but it ended up being a miserable failure.

To my disappointment, many of my neighbors don't mind seeing trash on the street for 14 hours ahead of pick up, despite the obvious advantages of the trash not being there. Despite the BHCA's best efforts, we were unable to inform many residents on the north slope of this program. The reasons for that disconnect would cover several other blog posts.

And, perhaps most importantly, the City of Boston has trouble enforcing the green tickets it issues, and for no fault of its own. There are many reasons why, but a dirty little secret in Boston is if you receive a green ticket (as opposed to an orange parking ticket), you can just ignore it and you will probably not hear about it again. I used to joke with people that the best thing to do with a green ticket trash violation is put it in the trash.

However, my legislators, in particular my City Councilor Mike Ross and my State Representative, Mary Walz, are attempting to solve the green ticket problem. They are pressing legislation that allows the City to connect the green ticket violations directly to property holders. It would allow the city to hold the property holders accountable by placing liens on their properties as a result of unpaid green tickets, similar to how unpaid parking tickets can be attached to eligibility for a driver's license renewal.

The bill is on the Governor's desk this week for his signature, and my neighbors urge him to sign it.

The BHCA is thinking about starting anew with a same-day pick up program. We've learned from our mistakes, and the education effort in the community for this second attempt will be massive. But without more effective green ticket enforcement, it's hard for the city to help us.

Governor Patrick: Please sign the bill.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Governor Patrick did not sign the bill, and it was therefore subject to a pocket veto.