Rantz: Seattle’s ‘war on garbage’ is a good start but needs more shaming

The City of Seattle is no longer following behind the messy trail of illegal dumping, creating a map to proactively hit trouble spots before there are complaints. But KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz says if the city is finally waging a “war on garbage” it can’t simply let the trashers off the hook.

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Seattle Public Utility’s announced that the number of illegal dumping service requests jumped from about 5,000 to 11,500 in 2015, which meant response times increased from 21 to 28 days. In response, SPU shifted from an enforcement model that would only respond to complaints, to one that proactively cleans illegal dumping in areas where it happens frequently. Using “clean sweep” maps and routes, crews drive each street to pick up both reported and unreported items. KIRO 7 reported that the department had not cited anyone in 2015 for illegal dumping and moved away from issuing citations several years ago since inspectors need witnesses of illegal dumping to give a fine.

Rantz applauds SPU’s proactive approach but believes cleaning the garbage without addressing the people responsible for leaving junk on the streets, or their neighbors’ lawns, misses the point.

“Instead of doing that and ticketing people who are breaking the law, they are simply going out there and just cleaning,” he said. “Shouldn’t part of waging war mean you’re going to the people who are committing these acts to make sure they aren’t doing it anymore? Like going after the root cause. Because there are human beings who are deciding to leave this stuff on their front lawns, there are like human beings who are covertly in the middle of the night, deciding they’re going to go down a few blocks and leave that couch there.”

Rantz questioned this weird laziness of people who would rather go through the motions of sneaking around at night to dump massive old appliances and pieces of furniture when there are nonprofits that will literally bring a truck, remove the item and sell it for charity. Some of it, he acknowledges, is related to homelessness, but nobody else has a legitimate excuse.

“Clean your crap up or call the Salvation Army; if you have a car, call Kars4Kids,” he said. “I like that Seattle is doing something, I like to see the city be proactive, but on the other hand, lets lecture people, let’s shame people who are doing this. Clean your stuff up.”