Community Post

Illegal Dumping

A favorite site for illegal dumpers is once again heaped with yard debris and trash; the sidewalk along 29th Ave. S. at S. King St. This shady sidewalk is usually impassible between S. Dearborn and S. King St. due to vegetation overgrowth and/or piles of trash, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street.
The cameras and signage that were installed at some point in the past have zero effect at curtailing illegal activity here. Also, the time between cleanups and new dumps appears to be growing shorter. Outside of reporting illegal dumping to the city, I welcome any ideas or suggestions anyone might have to combat this issue and increase the safety and enjoyment of our neighborhood.

0 thoughts on “Illegal Dumping

  1. Boy, some others who read this will not like this but here goes….

    People are doing it because the laws that all of Seattle abides by are selectivly enforced in the CD. There is a reward for illegal dumping. I would document who is doing it. Demand an arrest and reward with you/others and/or video as proof. If they do not prosecute SUE the City!!!.It is the only way things will change.
    Sorry Scott but face it, the status quo here really is raciest and demands a fairness outrage through the legal channels. This has occured over and over for decades here.

  2. I live near a spot that is chronically dumped-on, and am unfortunately basically the only eyes on the street for this particular spot. It is tough on my pride to have dinner guests show up and park next to an old matress, or to explain to my young daughter why there is a pile of trash across the street.

    The single biggest problem is that I find it nearly impossible to catch anyone in the act. The very few times over the last few years that I have caught anyone, I have had shouting matches that solve the problem for about one day. Most typically, we wake up every other week or so with a few matresses in the gutter, or a major appliance, or whatever. I find myself jumping out of bed at night to see if the car door I heard in the middle of the night was the neighbors getting home late or one of the “landscape and hauling” freelancers trying to save a few bucks on disposal fees.

    The institution on who’s property the dumping actually takes place does not have a good record of clean up, often leaving the waste in place for weeks unless I really ride them. This, I think, adds to the perception that this is a good place to dump stuff.

    It is astonishing to watch people litter – at all – especially in there own community, but I’ve watched it happen day after day. This is a tough problem, sueing sounds good but it is all but an impossibility in my opinion. I may have to turn my house into a surveillance hub of some kind to make any progress on this, but I can’t shake the spector of the Gene Hackman “Conversation” outcome.

  3. Actually, in a book I have on the old I-90 expansion days the Leshi and Alantic Street Community Councils DID sue the city over trash on empty surplus I-90 lot and WON. It was appealed and the appeal was overturned and the city was required to clean up any trash left on the empty lots. They did clean it up one time and than ignored the ruling.

  4. I think we need to get off the Racism as an excuse for problems thing. This kind of thing is all about the money. Paying to get rid your trash is expensive in this town. Who wouldn’t want to save $100 if your trash just falls off the back of the truck instead of giving it to the city to do the right thing with it. Seattle is actually a really fair and clean city compared to alot of places. I grew up in Phila. and that is a city with some serious problems when it comes to corruption, racism, trash removal, transportation,crumbling schools, teachers strikes….. Out problem is people without much money trying to get away with something on the sly. There used to be an annual trash amnesty day in the neighborhood for people to clean out there basements for free. So many people from other neighborhoods started trucking in their trash to take advantage of us that it had to stop. It wasn’t racist white people dumping their trash in the ghetto, it was people taking advantage of something free.
    We need to figure out a way to make dumping trash easy and affordable for everyone and also be willing to go after anyone that doesn’t cooperate.

  5. There are two cameras back there now. Do they record anything?

    Why wouldn’t working ones… work!?!

  6. HINT.
    If the crap is on private property the owner must clean it up. If the crap is IN THE STREET, the city must clean it up. I am in no sense proposing moving a pile into the street, heavens no!!! But this is just an FYI.