Westover: City needs to crack down on open garbage pads

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The other morning I was awakened by an alarming noise, and it wasn’t the usual iPhone irritant.

Was someone up on my roof at 5 a.m., brandishing a nail gun? The hollow thwacking shook the house to its very foundations.

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Sherlock Holmes I am not, but it took all of five seconds of identify the real culprit: a breakfasting, beady-eyed crow, with the wingspan of a kindergartener, hammering away on the remains of his own distant relation.

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I like chicken wings as well as the next person. But this nature-documentary-style, dog-eat-dog display was enough to cure me of that indulgence. I’ve also gone off French bread, after picking up countless mouldering baguettes, which pesky corvids keep dropping in my yard.

These passerines are multiplying in our little corner of Barrhaven, thanks in no small part to the open garbage receptacles lining many condominium parking lots, including those abutting our backyard.

Instead of sensible closed containers, raised concrete pads that are fenced on three sides are intended as a staging area for garbage collection. In theory, residents place their garbage in lidded bins the night before collection day.

In practice, it simply does not work.

Tenants have nowhere to store their garbage except for the interior of their units. Even if they wanted to store it on their balconies, sensible bylaws prevent that. Besides, those without ground-level access shouldn’t be asked to keep even empty, unwieldy bins in their only useable outdoor space.

The end result is that people throw bags of garbage directly onto the pad, which is entirely open to the elements, at all hours of the day and night. I did a Google Earth search of this particular stretch of back alley, and the offending pictures look like they’d been taken at a landfill, not a residential neighbourhood in the nation’s capital. A nice view from my guest room. In summer, its an olfactory experience, too.

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After much letter-writing and phone-calling, the City finally agreed this was unacceptable.

The condo corporation responded by having a clean-up crew come by semi-regularly to haul away the detritus accumulated between garbage days. But that temporary fix only goes so far.

We lobbied for more accountability, namely proper disposal units, with various departments that purported to be responsible, from property standards to health and safety. All to no avail.

The bylaw officers we’ve spoken to have been unfailingly kind and responsive. They affirmed our challenge is hardly isolated, and other neighbourhoods incur similar frustrations.

But their powers are limited, and the condo corporation seems undeterred by clean-up notices or the occasional fine. They’re still far cheaper than taking the high road and building proper storage units, like many other similar complexes have done.

If a corporation won’t hold itself to responsible environmental, health, and safety standards voluntarily, then surely we have a collective obligation to do it for them.

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The City has tools at its disposal to correct bad behaviour. A City Order might do the trick — and, if not, they have the purview to contract out the work and bill the offender.

We don’t accept open-air collection sites at retail centres or strip malls. Yet we’re willing to turn a blind eye where people actually live?

Just a couple of days ago, I noted a flurry of winged activity around that same condo building. A family of crows is building a nest of king-sized-bed proportions, a short flight from the all-day buffet on offer below.

The city’s 311 line is a wonderful resource, but it’s also at times frustratingly inflexible. Press one for garbage doesn’t quite cover the entirety of my concerns. The time and resources could be far better spent on other matters rather than responding to an ongoing issue, which will only be resolved by the dint of will of elected officials.

In the meantime, I’d be happy to invite City Council over to dine on a delicious lunch of chicken wings and baguettes.

Suzanne Westover is an Ottawa writer.

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