Local Politics at Work

Outside the T last Thursday I found one Mr. Joe Curtatone, mayoral candidate for the great city of Somerville. Joe was striding up to people with that purposeful walk that only politicians have, shaking hands. His campaign workers were handing out flyers which outlined his plan for improving our local school system. I don't have kids, but I thought to myself, what the hell, why not get my personal gripe out there.

I introduced myself and asked him if he had any thoughts about Somerville's recycling program. He told me he had been a part of getting the recycling program off the ground several years back as an alderman, and that he felt that the Somerville program was a good one. I have to admit, I really wasn't listening all that well, because I had pretty much made up my mind that no matter what he said, it wasn't going to be a good enough answer and that my issue was going to get heard.

Here's my problem. I don't have a recycle bin. The problem, though, is that when you put out things that should OBVIOUSLY be recycled (such as big ol' moving boxes that have been broken down, or a box full of cans, or the like) and they aren't actually IN a recycle bin, the garbagemen just trash them. So, even when I try to recycle, they don't let me. And it's tough to get a recycle bin. When I lived in Brighton, you could call a number and they'd deliver a recycle bin to you. Here in Somerville you have to go to the DPW and pick one up - which is not particularly convenient in that I don't have a car.

So I told all this to Mr. Curtatone. He explained that he wanted to institute a 311 line in Somerville whereby people could call city hall if they had non-emergency issues that needed to be attended to, as a sort of central clearing house for information. Seemed like a good idea to me. Better than that, he turned to one of his campaign workers and said, let's get this woman a recycle bin. He took my name and address and believe it or not, within three hours, I had a recycle bin. I like that. He followed through.

And WE followed through. Yesterday, I took out - er, ROD took out the trash and the recyclables proudly, knowing that we were doing our civic duty and making the world a better place. No more putting out boxes that would get thrown away by ignorant garbagemen. No more tossing out cans that I know could be and should be recycled. No more hoarding soda cans and sneaking them into other people's recycle bins! Life is good again!

Well, it WAS. But by the end of the day Tuesday, someone had stolen our recycle bin. We got to use it ONCE.

Think I can convince the other mayoral candidate to get me a new one?