Losing one of two weekly trash pickup days is not the primary source of groans and grouses around our neighborhood concerning the OneDAY Dallas initiative that began in March. Instead, the majority of complaints from neighbors seem to center on the city requiring that 3,000 Dallas residents switch from alley to curbside pickup.
“We are all concerned that the curb appeal of our neighborhood is gone now,” Lakewood resident Cindy Famili says. “Who wants to move into a neighborhood where trash is on 24-hour display? A community dumpster would have been a better idea than this.”
Some residents of the White Rock-area Peninsula neighborhood also have voiced frustration over placing bins on the curb, and they appealed to the city to try to find a solution that would allow them to keep trash pickup in the alleys.
According to Mary Nix, the city’s director of sanitation services, not all streets with alley pickup are included in the switch; the change affected mainly those that previously used trash bags or non city-issued bins. Because of once-a-week pickup, the city’s larger, roomier bins are now necessary to prevent public health concerns, Nix says.
The problem in both the Peninsula and other neighborhoods, Nix says, is that with the large city bins on either side, the alleys aren’t wide enough for a garbage truck to navigate. Nix told Peninsula neighbors that their alley pickup would resume if they would clear out crowded alleys, and create inlets for the trash and recycle bins.
“The Peninsula neighborhood is very, very anxious to find a way to return to the alley, and have done amazing things to get alleys cleared,” Nix says, but adds that two factors are holding up progress: First, not all residents have had time to create the inlets; and second, she also has heard from Peninsula residents who do not want alley pickup resumed. At press time, the sanitation department was compiling a survey to send to all Peninsula residents to ensure that whatever decision is made pleases the majority.
Even if not all Peninsula neighbors comply, Nix says alley service would resume soon for any blocks that have made way for the garbage trucks. “I’m sure we’ll find a way that will make most of the people happy,” she says.
Any neighborhoods with a similar issue should contact the sanitation department to arrange for a drive through of their alleys, Nix says, and when possible, arrangements will be made to resume alley pickup. –ELIZABETH ELLIOTT
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