The streets and alleys of the Back Bay are filthy, littered with trash and garbage. Take a walk along any alley before and after trash pickup days. It’s a feast for the senses, and for the rats that plague the neighborhood.
What is going on? Have people suddenly lost their normal sense of propriety and decided to become slobs? Not completely. This is a phenomenon that seems to occur annually as residents return from vacation and rental properties turn over at the end of August.
As most residents know, rental properties in the Back Bay typically turn over on September 1. This is the cause of the three-day, hurricane-like event that turns every street from Beacon Hill through Brighton into a garbage dump. As surely as summer begets autumn, moving begets trash. New tenants, stunned to discover that $1,200 a month is buying them a place so small that they need to walk outside to sneeze, have no place inside to store their trash. Outside it goes.
Longer-term residents are not without fault, either. August’s end means we begin to contemplate with panic the onset of winter. We reassess our needs, dumping our summer-related possessions and cleaning up our homes. The piles of trash mount. Outside they go.
Combined with the Labor Day holiday, a drenching rainstorm, the everyday activities of scavengers and the occasional crushed bag from trucks and cars traversing the alleys, Back Bay turned into one large refuse area. The City’s Public Works Department, at the order of the Mayor, has actually had an additional collection. Boston’s Inspectional Services inspectors have also been out, ticketing those who have improperly put out their trash. But the City cannot do it alone. Residents need to assist. A few thoughts: