French Quarter trash negotiations could use some freshening up
What’s the exact number of French Quarter small businesses, single-family dwellings, and multi-family dwellings with four or fewer units that are all eligible for SDT trash pickup?
Choose the best answer:
A) 3,188
B) 2,911
C) 5,000
D) 4,062
E) 6,500
This is not to make light of a serious quality of life issue in the Quarter, or the importance of negotiations between the mayor and SDT. Nor is this at all a criticism of the present administration, which has been working overtime to clean up the trash left behind by the previous administration.
Part of the reported problem is that people at ineligible locations are putting out their trash for SDT pickup instead of signing a private contract for trash removal — but that issue might be resolved with RFID tags.
What isn’t clear from news stories is why the number of eligible locations isn’t an objective fact, and a starting point for negotiations. One possible answer is that the city’s Geographic Information Systems contractor of the last 12 years may have never produced a complete and accurate set of addresses for the entire city.
Of course, if an accurate master address list for the city exists, neighborhood organizations deserve an explanation for why they haven’t been able to obtain that list to support their Katrina recovery projects.
An objective number of addresses in the French Quarter should be an easy fact to produce, would provide a solid foundation for trash negotiations to continue, and would probably save the city and SDT a significant amount of money
