Letters to the Editor: On Trash Cans

A childish story revival

In March of 2011, The Tribune, with Bob Cuddy’s help, decided to write some stories about the San Luis Obispo trash can ordinance. Now, in September, it has decided to resurrect the topic by publishing photos of the homes of all our City Council members.

The photos don’t reveal some gross violation of neighborhood decency in my mind. Seems almost childish to me to offer up a visual of the exact location of these elected officials’ homes (while I do admit I was also a bit amused at the childish responses of some of those council persons, if they were quoted correctly).

Better yet, The Tribune’s own website allows you with one click to even buy copies of those photos. I award The Tribune its own “Brickbat” award for such an immature approach to their concern, which is the lack of exact compliance with the ordinance by its creators. In addition to including photos of the council members’ homes, your maturity might have been better represented if you had included photos of truly offensive violations where cans are lying in multitudes for days along a residential street where some sanitation issues might really exist.

Scott Cooke

San Luis Obispo

Outrageous violations

I must say I find it fairly outrageous that four of the five San Luis Obispo City Council members are in violation of the city’s new “Recycle Bin Shield Law.” Andrew Carter’s open defiance when confronted with the news is disappointing, although not surprising.

My condominium complex in downtown San Luis Obispo incurred no small expense to construct a fenced-off area next to our trash dumpster enclosure for the express purpose of meeting the requirements of the new ordinance.

Is it too much to suggest the people on the panel responsible for the new law should do the same?

Jim Mallon

San Luis Obispo

One with integrity

The flagrant disregard for the law regarding the location of trash bins by four-fifths of the San Luis Obispo City Council is stupefying. The ordinance is very clear; there is nothing ambiguous about it. Its passage was not without controversy. How can these four people be so removed from reality?

Thank goodness one council member — Dan Carpenter — has integrity.

Marc Brazil

San Luis Obispo

Start enforcing the ordinance

Sad as it may be that elected officials can’t comply with that trash ordinance, the problem has become an epidemic in my neighborhood. Within a two-minute walk of my house (Verde to Rafael Way on Romona), there are 26 rental houses with trash cans in violation of the ordinance.

Many of the trash cans are within 10 feet of the curb and/or are left in the street on a permanent basis. The vast majority are college students’. Many think this is a stupid ordinance; I think it needs to stay and be enforced.

The City Council needs to get out and take a look at some of the areas and start enforcing the trash ordinance. I am tired of my neighborhood ­looking like a dump. Landlords make the money; I put up with the problem. What’s wrong with that picture?

I have lived in this area since 1986, and it is disgusting what the landlords and students are doing to the neighborhood.

Joe Sayre

San Luis Obispo