If You’ve Called Lubbock a Garbage Town, You Might Not Be Wrong

This is getting ridiculous.

This was the scene in the alley behind my house last week. As of this morning, it's not only still there, but has grown to the point where it can now been seen from the International Space Station.

For the past week, I've been able to see the garbage pile from my dining room window and have wondered how long it was going to take until the city came by to empty the bins. It's been over a week since they were last emptied, so far, the answer has been "never."

To compound the problem, I live in an area of new construction where houses are being occupied very quickly, yet the City of Lubbock has not used its infinite wisdom to add a dumpster or two. For 24 houses on our alley, there are a total of 3 dumpsters. Three. Some streets have as many as 6, and we have half as many. This means, of course, more garbage, especially if the city decides that it has better things to do than, say, its job.

Add to that the fact that a lot of construction trash winds up in these dumpsters (since they can't be bothered to use their own) and you get a perfect storm of crap.

I actually had a neighbor walk down the street with two very full trash bags and ask me if it was okay for us to use the construction dumpsters since ours were full and theirs were empty. "Knock yourself out," was my response. I think they just wanted validation that it was okay, and I didn't care.

Bottom line is this: the city needs to do better about making sure that trash doesn't pile up and that it doesn't fly all over town once the wind blows.