A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 20-43, regarding a report on trash left out on Columbia Street

City of Cambridge Department of Public Works Owen O'Riordan, Commissioner 147 Hampshire Street Cambridge, MA 02139 theworks@cambridgema.gov Voice: [phone removed] TDD: [phone removed] September 29, 2020, To: Louis DePasquale City Manager From: Owen O’Riordan, Commissioner DPW Re: Awaiting Report 20-43, dated September 14th, 2020 regarding trash left out on Columbia Street at the end of each of the Summer months. In response to the above referenced awaiting report, please know that traditionally one or two weeks prior to June 1st and one or two weeks prior to September 1st the City sees disproportionately larger amounts of bulky waste (furniture, matresses, desks, etc.) set out at the curb in comparison to the rest of the year. This behavior is typically associated with students moving in and/or out during those time frames. This practice is a City wide issue and has been happening for decades. In response, Public Works increases enforcement activity during these periods and has day and evening crews work longer days, sending trucks back to sections for additional pickups, and more recently adding additional vehicles to assist with mattress and boxspring recycling. This year, while we still saw large amounts of debris during the time frames mentioned above, we also saw this practice happening at the end of each month on streets such as Columbia Street. Although to a much lesser degree than the traditional move in/move out weeks, small amounts of furniture have begun showing up on sidewalks at the end of every month. While we have not identified a definitive reason for this, we began noticing these changes just after the start of the pandemic. Inspectors are sent out to issue tickets and talk with property owners where possible, and additional trucks are sent out to remove debris from the street as quickly as possible. This will continue as long as this new phenomonen continues. The use of Commonwealth Connect has also been valuable in both recording where issues have been found as well as directing resources in the most efficient way. Our hope is that as the environment returns to normal these occurrences will also return to a normal cycles. In the meantime, we will monitor areas such as Columbia Street through the remainder of the year to assure that they are kept in a clean and safe condition, and we will also re-evaluate the need for any additional services through the fall and winter and indeed into the spring of 2021.