Hartford cleanup
Residents tell city to clean up its act as mattresses linger on curbs for weeks, months
Hartford leaders are putting together a new anti-litter campaign to discourage people from trashing the capital city, but residents who recently previewed the plan offered one reminder: The city has to clean up its act, too.
HARTFORD — Hartford leaders are putting together a new anti-litter campaign to discourage people from trashing the capital city, but residents who recently previewed the plan offered one reminder: The city has to clean up its act, too.
Pieces of furniture and mattresses are sometimes ignored for weeks or months by bulky waste trucks, residents told Mayor Luke Bronin and Public Works Director Walter Veselka during a Sept. 26 town hall meeting. And bulky waste complaints to 311, the city’s nonemergency service center, are sometimes closed out prematurely, while the debris still sits on the curb.
An anti-litter initiative is a good idea, too, residents agreed, considering how much garbage is sprinkled across Hartford’s sidewalks, streets and parks, gathering in piles alongside weed-choked chain-link fences. Hartford’s visitors, workers and residents are part of the problem and must be part of the solution, they acknowledged.
But what Hartford needs just as much as a boost in civic pride,
residents say, is a more robust and reliable public works department that can hold up the city’s end of the deal.
“I don’t know how much more I can do to make the behavior change,” said Frog Hollow resident Edison Silva, a former city operations manager who regularly reports bulky waste violations to the city. “It’s very frustrating.”
Hartford’s bulky waste headache began when the city ended its free collection service in favor of an appointment-only system in which every household is entitled to two free collections per year, and must pay $75 for any additional pickups.
The old, free system was costly to the city and encouraged dumping from neighboring towns, but the sudden end to free collection led to months of blight, with curbs clogged by mattresses and box springs, broken furniture and other debris.
Public works eventually began collecting bulky waste whether it had been scheduled or not, and the city’s two solid waste inspectors don’t fine residents for first or second violations, Bronin told the room full of residents gathered for his monthly town hall. Instead, the inspectors knock on doors and take the opportunity to talk with residents about the new process.
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t places where it gets missed or we screw up,” Bronin told the room full of residents gathered for his monthly town hall. “Obviously, there are.”
Along Garden Street in the North End, chairs, couches and an old fish tank litter the curb, with trash collection still days away. On Lawrence Street in Frog Hollow, the same mattress has been left at the curb for more than two months, a neighbor said. It was eventually picked up on collection day Wednesday.
But across the neighborhood, on Madison Street, a ratty, broken box spring and a pair of old couches remained at the curb Thursday, left behind by sanitation workers.
“They do that all the time,” a passerby said. “That’ll be there for a minute. But they want to put taxes up.”
While city leaders haven’t raised Hartford’s mill rate, property taxes on singlefamily homes have increased more than 8 percent since 2016 due to a state mandate to raise Hartford’s residential property assessment ratio. The ratio is part of the city’s complicated, bifurcated tax structure where commercial property owners pay more than residential ones. The commercial property tax has held steady, but the tax rate, a stifling 74.29 mills, is often passed on to tenants through high rents.
Silva notices the bulky waste that gets left behind on Madison Street, where he owns property. He tries to follow the city’s system, he told the mayor and Veselka at the town hall. He snaps a picture whenever something sits out for longer than it should, and he logs those into the 311 app that tracks requests for bulky waste violations, rodents, potholes and other issues.
And then, he sometimes logs the request again when it’s marked ‘completed,’ despite the furniture still fixed to the curb. Silva reported the same pile of furniture four times over the last two months, he told Bronin. And when Silva went down to city hall, a 311 supervisor explained that the waste was scheduled to be picked up, and advised the resident to call a number for collection details.
“I’m sorry, but they’re the 311 supervisor,” Silva told Bronin. “It is not my job as a taxpayer to make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Murmurs of agreement spread through the room. “I had a similar problem,” one woman said. “I did, too,” echoed another. “It’s a common response,” a third person told Bronin.
Lillie Parker, who lives on Douglas Street in the South End, said the city twice failed to pick up old furniture that was placed on the curb across from her. She was furious when a city employee told her it would be another week until the chair was gone because a police officer had to investigate the violation and who was responsible.
“It just infuriated me that I had called and all these chairs and couches had been sitting there for over a week and then he tells me, ‘Well, we’ve got to go through the process and go out and investigate,’” Parker said. “He already had a week to investigate.”
All bulky waste is meant to be picked up on a street’s collection day whether or not a pickup has been scheduled. But if the waste hasn’t been scheduled, sanitation workers are supposed to make note of the address and provide the information to solid waste inspectors, who then pay the home a visit and explain the system. The unscheduled pickup is counted as one of the two free bulky waste collections allotted to each resident.
Veselka declined to comment last week on why some items are still being left at the curb.
The new system seems to be working well, Bronin told residents at his town hall. Of the 5,500 bulky waste pickups the city has made this year, about 4,000 were scheduled, he said.
The new anti-litter campaign should improve conditions across Hartford, too, Bronin said. Plans for the initiative are still underway, but it quietly kicked off on social media in September with posts advertising the hashtag #lovehartford.
The campaign will also paper businesses, lawns and bus shelters — once the city cleans those thickly caked in graffiti — with calls to “Show the city some love,” and “Have a Hart, don’t trash the beat!”
Another message will borrow a catchphrase from rapper Cardi B, chiding, “Trash goes in the can, Okurr!” The city plans to get youth to lead the campaign.
“Part of this is creating some peer pressure,” Bronin said.
The Hartford Police Department also assigned Officer Thomas Knapp to investigate illegal dumping in the city in April 2018.
He’s gotten 154 cases, and while about 85 percent were deemed unsolvable, he’s served seven warrants and is currently preparing another one, according to Lt. Paul Cicero.
But there’s no excuse for items sitting out for weeks or months, Bronin told the residents.
“It is totally unacceptable for an item to be sitting there like that and not picked up,” he added.