I guess when you live North of War Memorial you don’t get dogs, cats, raccoon and other critters in your trash. It must be all sunshine and rainbows. I’m sure name brand litter must be far less offensive than litter that comes from Aldi products. It must be delightful to find a Tampax brand tampon applicator fresh from someone’s trash as opposed to a store brand one. Maybe you can make a craft out of it and give it to someone you love.

Here is a dirty little secret the city doesn’t want you to know about: People north of War Memorial do shit and guess what? Occasionally it stinks.

Code Enforcement decided to send warning letters to our entire neighborhood. It stated that the city only gives one warning every two years and that tickets would be issued for the following violations:
Garbage cans without lids
Using plastic bags for garbage containers
Unlicensed/inoperable vehicles
Litter in yards and alley
Cans left in alley for more than 24 hours after garbage pickup
Tree limbs in alley or yard
Dog feces not being picked up daily
If these violations don’t pertain to your property then disregard this letter but use for future reference. You have until the date listed to fix violations.

Alot of us got pissed. Instead of the Code Enforcement officer getting out of the car and addressing the problems, we all get a generic letter addressed to “Occupant” and “To whom it may concern”. We called Code Enforcement and talked to the supervisor. She said that if our letter didn’t have anything marked that we didn’t have to worry. So Code Enforcement just wasted money sending all of us letters that didn’t mean anything?
We are all concerned that we all having warnings on our property for the next two years for nothing. The supervisor said that wasn’t the case. I imagine none of us will know for sure until we get our first ticket. Then we are informed that Code Enforcement is not required to give a warning. The city says we get a warning yet Code Enforcement says that isn’t necessarily the case. Who do we believe?

I think this will turn out the way these crack downs usually do. Those of us who take care of our property will end up with ticket for an ill fitting trash can lid or a single piece of litter in our yard because we are responsible. We will throw away the litter and pay our ticket. The people who just don’t care and the slumlords with their eyesore properties will continue to operate business as usual.