MEMPHIS, Tenn. — AB2C4 was in Orange Mound the last week of April listening to the community's concerns in our latest “Let's Talk." One constant issue throughout the neighborhood is the trash pileup – including tires, trees and furniture.
Residents said it’s a never-ending issue and the City of Memphis said, they’re working on it but it’s costing them a lot of money.
“We’re spending about $6 million a year just managing private property,” Robert Knecht, the city’s Public Works director said. “By managing, I mean they’re not cutting the grass, they’re not keeping the property secure, they’re letting it get dilapidated so we have to demolish it.”
This alone is taking away from other areas the city could be spending their budget.
“That obviously takes away from other things we can do with that funding – for parks, libraries, for us to do more litter collection, [and] cutting the city maintained properties,” Knecht said.
Orange Mound residents like Esther Jones and Jaqueline Holland said the convenience of the city dealing with bulk items is more feasible for them.
“You tell us, well we have a place where you all can take your trash and take your tires, right,” Jones said. “I don’t have transportation to take trash and tires to where you telling me to take it to. What average resident has the equipment to put all the tires?”
While the city has specific bulk trash pick-up days listed on their website and the 311-app based on where residents live, the community says the days listed are not enough for the amount of trash they see in their neighborhood. So, they’ve taken trash pick-up into their own hands.
“Our captain tells us where to be, we are there … because we’re picking up, we’re constantly concentrating on this kind of thing,” Holland said.
Residents also said they wish they didn’t have to put as much work into gathering trash from vacant lots but they’ll keep doing it to keep their neighborhood clean, especially if the city can help.
“They want the city to do more, because they don’t like it taking so long for us to take care of a private property because we have to follow the law,” Knecht said. “Sometimes they get frustrated by how long it takes us to bring a property into what we call ‘into compliance’.”
So, the community is asking for bulk pick up trucks to be placed in their neighborhood weekly, with assistance getting trees and tires into the large bins, saying the convenience will keep Memphis beautiful.
“Bring it here, tell us what day and we will get it done,” Holland said. “We are trying so hard. If we got them to tell us that they would do that, it’s enough churches that would give us their back parking lot. We can get it done.”
As community members work to get more of their blighted areas cleaned up, the City of Memphis stresses the need for residents to look up their bulk pick-up dates using the 311 app or their website and marking it on calendars. Also, only place bulk pick-up in front of your own home, since, by law, they aren’t able to quickly remove items from vacant properties.