INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!

Thu Dec 7 16:44:04 EST 2006

Barry,

I pretty much agree with you.  I think there is a place for yard waste collection.  However, it seems like the official city program tells people that they are doing the right thing when they place all of their leaves in the brown bin and paper bags.  That's not necessarily the case, and in most cases, I think that people just don't know any better.

- Chris Sevick

=====================
From: bragin at nc.rr.com
Date: 2006/12/07 Thu PM 03:12:29 CST
To: csevick at alumni.unc.edu
Cc: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!

Chris - i compost most of the leaves that fall into my yard, as well as
all of my grass clippings.

But i've got a lot of oak trees from neighbors properties, as well as
one or two on my property. Oak take a lot of time to break down, and it
contributes a fair amount of acidity to the soil. So the rest of the
leaves need to go somewhere

and that's just for me. Good luck trying to convince most of Durham to
hang onto their leaves, especially that fairly large segment of the
population that does not own the house they are living in. Most
landlords in my neighborhood don't give a fig about the condition of
their houses, let alone their yards. Not to mention the vast quantity of
leaves that simply fall into the street from our beautiful overhanging
tree canopies.

We don't have to encourage leaf disposal. It's being done. Take a walk
through any empty lot that's near a cluster of residential properties,
and you'll see it.

Barry Ragin

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Sevick <csevick at verizon.net>
Date: Thursday, December 7, 2006 4:01 pm
Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org

> I understand the practical concerns regarding leaf disposal, but it 
> sure sounds like folks are encouraging it.  Do you all really want 
> to encourage leaf disposal?  
> 
> Durham's newly-adopted UDO promotes naturalistic landscaping.  
> Books like "The Landscaping Revolution" discuss naturalistic 
> landscaping, and point out that you should always keep leaves and 
> other organic material in your yard.  They can be raked and placed 
> in a different part of the yard, but never disposed of.
> 
> Based on my reading, I think that responsible citizens should keep 
> the leaves in their yards.  Yard waste is a waste.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Chris Sevick
> 
> =====================
> From: bragin at nc.rr.com
> Date: 2006/12/07 Thu AM 10:01:58 CST
> To: Nancy Grandjean <nancyg at centralpets.com>
> Cc: council at ci.durham.nc.us, inc-list at durhaminc.org, 
> patrick.baker at durhamnc.gov, 
> 	donald.long at durhamnc.gov
> Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!
> 
> This is the way it was done in most places i've lived prior to 
> moving to
> Durham. The key is to get the leaves picked up on a regular basis 
> beforethey enter the drainage system, where they negatively impact 
> the system
> both physically and ecologically.
> 
> My understanding is that the vacuum trucks, if they do in fact 
> exist (i
> haven't seen them myself) are a relatively new investment on the 
> part of
> the city.
> 
> Barry Ragin
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Nancy Grandjean <nancyg at centralpets.com>
> Date: Thursday, December 7, 2006 10:52 am
> Subject: Re:  INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!
> To: bragin at nc.rr.com, Ken Gasch <ken.gasch at hldproductions.com>
> Cc: council at ci.durham.nc.us, inc-list at durhaminc.org,
> patrick.baker at durhamnc.gov, donald.long at durhamnc.gov
> 
> > (Sorry if this comes through as a duplicate message; it didn't go 
> > through the first time I sent it.)
> > 
> > Given that the city already has the leaf vacuum trucks, why can't 
> > we rake leaves to the edge of our property and have them vacuumed 
> > up, instead of wasting time, money, and environmental resources 
> > putting billions of leaves into (relatively small) bags? (Plastic 
> > bags would be even worse environmentally.) I'm sure there's a 
> > logical reason . . . . (ho ho)
> > 
> > Nancy Grandjean
> > 
> > 
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: bragin at nc.rr.com [mailto:bragin at nc.rr.com]
> > >Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2006 02:30 PM
> > >To: 'Ken Gasch'
> > >Cc: council at ci.durham.nc.us, inc-list at durhaminc.org, 
> > patrick.baker at durhamnc.gov, 
> > >donald.long at durhamnc.gov
> > >Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!
> > >
> > >My informal survey, from driving around my neighborhood on 
> pickup 
> > day,>shows around 25% - 35% participation in the yard waste 
> program 
> > in my
> > >neighborhood. (Every year i tell Claire not to renew our yard waste
> > >subscription, and every year she goes ahead and does it anyway.)
> > >
> > >A couple of years back, i did another informal survey of municipal
> > >policies throughout the state of North Carolina. There were a 
> > bunch of
> > >cities that did not have separate fees for collecting yard 
> waste. 
> > There>were some cities that charged a fee for a yard waste cart, 
> > but not a
> > >subscription fee. There were a few that gave the cart away for 
> > free, but
> > >charged a subscription fee. There was one other city (can't recall
> > >which, may have been Winston or Greenville) which charged for both.
> > >Durham was the only one, however, which charged both an initial 
> > fee and
> > >a subscription fee which did not have a policy of picking up all 
> > leaves>in the city during the fall season regardless of 
> > participation in the
> > >program.
> > >
> > >The city does an absolutely terrible job of informing new 
> > residents of
> > >the policy that leaves in plastic bags will not be picked up. 
> Why 
> > should>we jump directly to fining people for gathering their 
> leaves 
> > in plastic
> > >bags when they are at least attempting to keep their yards, and the
> > >streets, free of leaves?
> > >
> > >Addtionally, many of our neighborhoods have large curbside trees
> > >dropping leaves directly into the streets. In my neighborhood, 
> if you
> > >were to have seen the piles of leaves at Knox Circle deposited 
> > there by
> > >nature last week, you'd realize there is nobody to whom a fine 
> can be
> > >given for this.
> > >
> > >Charging citizens extra for leaf pickup in Durham is like charging
> > >citizens extra for clearing the roadways of snow in Buffalo. 
> It's 
> > a fact
> > >of life, and should be budgeted for out of general revenues.
> > >
> > >That said, i'm still glad to see that the city is at least thinking
> > >ahead by (apparently) purchasing some hardware and actually 
> > putting it
> > >to use.  
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------------
> > This e-mail was sent using a CentralPets.com WebMail account
> > Get yours at: http://mail.centralpets.com
> > 
> > 
> > 
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