TalkingTrash --- Minding Other Folks' Leftovers
Posted: Monday, August 03, 2009
by Gerry Charbonneau
http://nibblednews.typepad.com
I have been an apartment dweller for an extremely long time and absolutely dread month end move outs and beginning of month move ins. This time of the month is both nerve wracking and exciting. It's always been that way for me and many other folks I know.
The time is exciting in so far as you never know who your new fellow tenants will be until the moving van arrives and unloads the furniture. This same sense of anticipation / angst also affects people who live in condominiums. Condo owners usually sublet their suites to whomever they wish much to the chagrin of their fellow tenants.
I live in a family-oriented building so crying infants and tricycles , barking puppies and meowing cats are common place. You always hope that a family with young children will take up residence in your building. Youngsters tend to ensure that loud music and all night partying will be at least be kept to a minimum.
A more nerve wracking and challenging situation develops when young people move into this type of environment. Then loud music and all night partying become the rule instead of the exception. Many of these younger tenants are away from home for the first time in their lives. A minority seem not to care about anything.
Then you know you have to quickly develop your diplomatic skills and try to negotiate a peaceful understanding and favorable arrangement between yourself and the offending party. Usually the new tenants are cooperative and become friendly neighbors who from time to time say hello to you in the parking lot. A good thing.
There are also a number of tenants who fail to read posted signs. They dump their furniture where they should not and refuse to poop scoop their dogs. The couch in the picture below was propped up against the fence and is located in a fire lane. The couch appeared their magically over night. In the past month there have been three suites of furniture, two televisions and one book case abandoned in this exact location.
One can only assume that the people doing the dumping are either conveniently illiterate or quietly indifferent to following common sense rules and regulations. So much for safety.
The trash collector refuses to handle the furniture and the resident property manager at times wears blinders to what's going on. It's frustrating for tenants whose vehicles are blocked in by the debris.
The property manager does have a fleet of large trucks that from time to time pick up the discarded furniture and delivers it to the dump. But this action usually takes place two or three weeks into the month...just in time for another tenant to abandon their furniture.
I find it amazing that not one neighbor whose suite faces the back lot ever sees who is doing the dumping. Of course their really is no incentive to report an offending neighbor.
The property manager should offer this service to tenants as part of their lease. Remove the furniture, clear away the eye sore and maintain good tenant/management relations. I have proposed this plan to the property manager from time to time. No one from the rental firm has contacted me about enacting the plan. So much for tenant involvement I guess.
The rents paid here are fairly high and the property is far from being a slum area. The only eyesore is the discarded furniture which visually downgrades the value of the property.
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