I read reporter Dale Liesch's story called "Enforcement questioned as litter continues to flow through city" in the July 9, 2015 - July 15, 2015 issue of Lagniappe. Bless Lagniappe and Dale for their fine investigative reporting. Someone sure should question the City's litter enforcement.
http://www.pageturnpro.com/Lagniappe/64945-Lagniappe-070915/0/mindex.html
On page 34 in the Lagniappe issue it said, "the new law makes fines cheaper at $100, instead of the $250 to $500 previously." Weakening the financial consequence for litter code violations is weakening the resolve to get tough on litter code violators. Less consequence means less incentive for violators to change.
Dale reports the City of Mobile now has 14 Property Maintenance Officers tasked with Litter Enforcement who regularly patrol commercial areas looking for litter code offenders in a proactive manner. Really? And the City of Mobile still has not hired a single person to work full time out in a boat removing the trash from where all the City's MS4 trash ends up in Mobile's trash polluted waterways? Then the City apparently still does not give a fuck about the waterways its community pollutes with litter.
Anyway, the story goes on to say the Director of the Litter Enforcement division David Daughenbaugh thinks the City has a good litter enforcement plan and they are making good strides. I was excited to hear the good news and did not realize there were 14 people proactively enforcing litter codes in Mobile. I certainly haven't seen any difference since I started documenting sources of litter years ago.
David Daughenbaugh's illustration of the City's litter enforcement progress says they used a "Ticket-A-Day" strategy on a Gas Station on Montlimar Drive. On June 17, there was garbage in a dumpster enclosure without there being a dumpster. The article says after the City issued 5 tickets to the business, by July 1 the Gas Station had placed a dumpster in the dumpster enclosure and the business had completely cleaned the area.
There are only two gas stations on Montlimar and I have been documenting litter at both of them. I knew exactly which gas station was lacking a dumpster and decided to go back to take photos of the now supposedly completely clean gas station property.
I had good intentions of giving the City of Mobile and the litter enforcement department praise for being pro-active in litter code enforcement and praise for their recent success at this Convenience Store. My pessimism proved to be correct. I do not listen to what the City spins in the Media, I observe what they say they do.
What I saw at the Gas Station on Saturday was loose trash all over the parking lot including a battery and an oil container, loose trash on the surrounding border of the property, loose trash around the building, an overstuffed dumpster with no lid, loose trash in the dumpster area, loose trash on the right-of-way, and a garbage receptacle that was overflowing to the point there was trash spilling on the ground.
And this is the result AFTER the City of Mobile's litter code enforcement action and education of the business as to what the City expects? This is a litter enforcement success story? Really? I know of at least one litter code enforcement officer with the City of Mobile who should be fired immediately.
As of the last tough new litter code revisions passed by the Mobile City Council in 2014, I saw at least six violations of the City's municipal litter code yesterday at this Gas Station on Montlimar.
Sec. 25-36. (a). It shall be the duty of every occupant of any commercial premises to keep the adjacent and surrounding area clear and free of litter. (Surrounding area was littered with trash including cans, bottles, plastic bags and other plastic trash.)
Sec. 25-36. (d). All occupants of commercial premises shall maintain their premises to be clean. (Litter was observed all over the property and surrounding area, including the right-of-way, parking lot, edge of the building, and dumpster area.)
Sec. 25-38. It shall be the responsibility of any owner whose property abuts a city right-of-way to keep the city right-of-way between the street and their property line free of litter. (Litter was observed on the right-of-way near the overflowing garbage receptacle.)
Sec. 25-42, Litter Receptacles. (b). Every occupant of commercial premises shall regularly maintain litter receptacles, including cigarette litter receptacles, adequate to contain litter generated at those premises. (I observed an overflowing garbage receptacle and cigarette butts all over the premises while noting what appeared to be a worker from Pakistan or India outside smoking.)
25-42 (c)(2). Litter receptacles must be covered in such a manner as to prevent litter from escaping the receptacle. (No lid on the overstuffed dumpster that had a trash bag partially hanging over the edge of the dumpster.)
25-42 (c)(3). Litter receptacle must be serviced with such frequency as necessary to prevent spillage from overflow and to prevent offensive odor. (Overflowing dumpster and overflowing garbage receptacle obviously not being emptied frequently enough.)
Litter on and surrounding Convenience Store Gas Stations continues to be a major source of litter in the Mobile community and its waterways. For whatever reasons, one being lack of litter enforcement, many Convenience Stores still refuse to put an employee outside to regularly sweep up and pick up the litter on and around their property, just like at this Gas Station near 950 Montlimar Drive.
As I looked at a January 2015 photo of the Gas Station dumpster area, I saw leaf debris, trash, and a styrofoam food container on the ground in the dumpster area. The photo of same dumpster area yesterday shows the supposedly "completely cleaned" dumpster area still had leaf debris I saw six months ago. Worse yet, I still see the same styrofoam food container on the ground in the dumpster area along with lots of little pieces of trash. To me that means the trash and debris in the dumpster area was NOT picked up and properly disposed of. This totally contradicts the info from Daughenbaugh that says a photo dated June 18 depicts the dumpster area as completely clean. Why am I not surprised at the misleading story about litter enforcement from a City official? Spin, Spin, Spin?
I better understand the problem as to why Convenience Store business properties remain so littered in Mobile. At least based on this Montlimar Gas Station, the City of Mobile is failing miserably at commercial property litter code enforcement. To me it is obviously some City litter enforcement officers have a very low expectation as to what litter they expect to be removed from a commercial premises.
That explains why every last complaint that I have filed with Mobile's 311 complaint service about a trashy or littered property has yet to result in a clean complaint property. I still go by every last complaint property and still see trash or litter.
Mobile remains a trashy City because of lack of litter enforcement, weakened litter violation fines, lack of adequate litter removal crews, lack of ditch trash removal, and lack of storm water trash removal.
The City's MS4 trash in a ditch I complained about to the City, County, State, and Feds in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 was still there in 2015. I am done complaining. Screw Mobile and its sorry ass leadership that can't even get a 1/4 mile long ditch cleaned of rotting trash, nor a convenience store property.
But, but, but, there are two Gas Stations on Montlimar. What if I was taking photos of one Gas Station but the City litter enforcement involved the other. Then I could by wrong in my assessment and opinions. Well, as I said, I documented the litter at BOTH Convenience Stores, both in the past and this past weekend. This weekend, the other Gas Station right-of-way, open dumpster area, storm water ditch, surrounding property, and parking lot was also littered with trash. Quite a lot of litter too. That other Gas Station was also in very visible violation of several City of Mobile municipal litter codes. Same assessment and opinion. Mobile has always had ineffective litter code violation enforcement and it still does, and probably always will.
Thanks to Dale's story, I better understand the only solution. The only solution for me apparently is to move away from this decaying people unfriendly racially divided pig sty of a City like so many other smart people have done. It isn't worth trying to improve it.