>The current leaf system hasn’t worked in years
The current leaf system hasn’t worked in years and yet every year it’s handled the same way. We need new ideas and a new plan, whether it’s bagging leaves (largely impractical for the amount of leaves most of us get), cutting back on other services such as recycling and bulk during leaf season, or outsourcing or getting private landscapers to help, something has to change.
The ordinance requiring leaves not be left on the street more than 7 days before pickup can’t be enforced because the leaves are never picked up according to schedule, so there’s no way to tell if the leaves have been there 7 days or 27 days. In order for streets to remain clear leaves need to be picked up every two weeks from the end of October through the end of December.
In my area there were two pickups all season; one before Halloween before much had fallen, and again about a week ago, where they had to deal with removing all of the leaves of the entire season in one trip, and we had to deal with navigating around the mess for over a month. Maybe leaf pickups before November 1 should be the responsibility of the homeowner – you can bag it yourself and bring to recycling, or get your landscaper to remove it – the October pickup seems to be a waste of time since there’s not much accumulation at that point, so residents could reasonably handle this themselves. After that, the town should come twice in November and twice in December. It can’t be that difficult.
