Flint's mayor says there will be no trash collection until further notice - Polidicks

[URL="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2016/07/mayor_says_there_will_be_no_tr.html"]SOURCE[/URL] [QUOTE]Flint Mayor Karen Weaver's office issued a July 30 statement announcing that the city no longer has trash service and garbage will not be picked up starting Monday[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]"Due to the circumstances, there will be no trash pick-up in the city starting this Monday, Aug. 1, 2016," said the statement sent by Flint spokeswoman Kristin Moore. "Until a new agreement is officially in place, we ask the residents not set their trash out at the curb to prevent animals from disturbing it and make the situation worse."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The announcement comes after the city's contract with Republic Services expired on July 29 at 5 p.m. The trash contract has been an ongoing dispute since June when the Flint City Council voted against Weaver's recommendation to award a $17.5-million-trash contract to Rizzo Environmental Services.[/QUOTE] In case you forgot about Flint, things managed to get worse. God bless privatization of vital services.

Sounds to me like the government waited until the last second to try and approve a plan.

Why are trash people private? Shouldn't that be a government sector?

[QUOTE=proboardslol;50812875]Why are trash people private? Shouldn't that be a government sector?[/QUOTE] Where do you live where trash pickup isn't privatized? The trash business is a [i]booming[/i] business!

[QUOTE=proboardslol;50812875]Why are trash people private? Shouldn't that be a government sector?[/QUOTE] Some municipalities choose to contract it out to a private company. You get to avoid the up-front cost of hiring people and buying a bunch of trash trucks and figuring out waste disposal, but then eventually you'll incur higher costs (like renting v. buying outright). My town's smaller than Flint and we have a city-run trash collection service. Sorta weird that Flint doesn't, but reflects perfectly on how terrible the government there is.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50813035]Some municipalities choose to contract it out to a private company. You get to avoid the up-front cost of hiring people and buying a bunch of trash trucks and figuring out waste disposal, but then eventually you'll incur higher costs (like renting v. buying outright). My town's smaller than Flint and we have a city-run trash collection service. Sorta weird that Flint doesn't, but reflects perfectly on how terrible the government there is.[/QUOTE] I've lived all over the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana area and it's rare to find a city that isn't privatized.

Think of all that trash just sitting out in the summer heat, the city's gonna smell rotten fast.

[QUOTE=Levelog;50813045]I've lived all over the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana area and it's rare to find a city that isn't privatized.[/QUOTE] Huh, I'm in Texas and we have a municipal "Solid Waste Services" department. Kinda funny that a city of like 60k in a stereotypical southern conservative state has socialized trash collection. We're basically communists down here.

They should just take their trash to city hall.

So not only is their water still completely fucked, but the entire city is gonna be overflowing with garbage too. Wow.

Why isn't the entire city condemned yet? The water is fucking poison. How can you live in a place where the water is poison? FEMA should be evacuating and resettling these people as they would any other disaster.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;50813154]Why isn't the entire city comdemned yet? The water[B] is fucking poison[/B]. How can you live in a place where the [B]water is poison[/B]? FEMA should be evacuationg and resettling these people as they would any other disaster.[/QUOTE] Woah there buddy! it's not poison, it's poison[I]ous[/I]

[quote]The council came back on July 18 and voted 8 – 1 against hiring Rizzo to haul Flint's trash even though their bid came in $2 million lower than Republic, the company who held the trash contract until July 29.[/quote] So instead of going with the cheapest option, which is smart for a city currently in trouble, city council wanted to spend $2 million more by keeping the old company, leading to a standoff between the Council and the Mayor. Both parties need to be removed from power.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;50812875]Why are trash people private? Shouldn't that be a government sector?[/QUOTE] It's all Unionization bullshit I'm sure. Unions pretty much destroyed Detroit and Michigan as a whole.

I'm sure de-industrialization while depending on only one industry destroyed them. But yeah let's take a pot shot at those money-grubbing unionists who want to be able to eat.

[QUOTE=Snapster;50813105]They should just take their trash to city hall.[/QUOTE] Too late, they did that on Election Day

[QUOTE=Cyke Lon bee;50813667]It's all Unionization bullshit I'm sure. Unions pretty much destroyed Detroit and Michigan as a whole.[/QUOTE] Uh, pushing out the Unions is what ruined Detroit. Auto manufacturers outsourcing labor to cheap workers and automation saw to that.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;50813154]Why isn't the entire city comdemned yet? The water is fucking poison. How can you live in a place where the water is poison? FEMA should be evacuationg and resettling these people as they would any other disaster.[/QUOTE] Did Katrina not show you that FEMA can do fuck-all? The only thing they were good for in the last 20 years was use in a Deus ex plot. [editline]1st August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=The_J_Hat;50814065]Uh, pushing out the Unions is what ruined Detroit. Auto manufacturers outsourcing labor to cheap workers and automation saw to that.[/QUOTE] It's hard to feel sorry for unions when only the top 30% get anything out of the entire idea. The rest get tiered as low wage scum and fodder.

So, Flints gonna put in a bid to host the Olympics in 2020 then?

[QUOTE=RayvenQ;50815992]So, Flints gonna put in a bid to host the Olympics in 2020 then?[/QUOTE] Still better than Rio.

[QUOTE=Levelog;50813045]I've lived all over the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana area and it's rare to find a city that isn't privatized.[/QUOTE] it also depends greatly on the city. Oberlin near me has private trash but public recycling (because of course the hippy colony would) they also have a cable coop because nobody would build out there

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50813035]Some municipalities choose to contract it out to a private company. You get to avoid the up-front cost of hiring people and buying a bunch of trash trucks and figuring out waste disposal, but then eventually you'll incur higher costs (like renting v. buying outright). My town's smaller than Flint and we have a city-run trash collection service. Sorta weird that Flint doesn't, but reflects perfectly on how terrible the government there is.[/QUOTE] Private run trash collecting is not an inherently bad thing. Companies like Waste Management can do excellent jobs at low rates, and the competition between companies to get contracts with cities help keep costs to a minimum. It's just unfortunately that Flint for whatever reason decided to not go with the cheaper contract.

[QUOTE=Cyke Lon bee;50813667]It's all Unionization bullshit I'm sure. Unions pretty much destroyed Detroit and Michigan as a whole.[/QUOTE] Nope. Capitalism destroyed Detroit. Workers uniting to ask for the things like a living wage is how the world should work.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;50813093]Huh, I'm in Texas and we have a municipal "Solid Waste Services" department. Kinda funny that a city of like 60k in a stereotypical southern conservative state has socialized trash collection. We're basically communists down here.[/QUOTE] Alabama, we've got "Madison waste management" here.

[QUOTE=GunFox;50816123]Nope. Capitalism destroyed Detroit. Workers uniting to ask for the things like a living wage is how the world should work.[/QUOTE] Capitalism didn't kill Detroit. It was horridly short-sighted unions demanding far too much too quickly, auto execs that refused to evolve, and city leaders that refused to diversify their economic base. Don't blame capitalism, blame the people that played the capitalism game and lost because they sucked at it.

[QUOTE=The_J_Hat;50814065]Uh, pushing out the Unions is what ruined Detroit. Auto manufacturers outsourcing labor to cheap workers and automation saw to that.[/QUOTE] Why do you think they outsourced labor away from Detroit? It's because the Unions got greedy and demanded far too much from the manufacturers. If you can automate the lines or find cheaper labor elsewhere, why wouldn't you? It would be foolish not too when you know that Unions are going to continue to demand more and completely screw the workers the whole way through. Unions killed Detroit. [editline]3rd August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=GunFox;50816123]Nope. Capitalism destroyed Detroit. Workers uniting to ask for the things like a living wage is how the world should work.[/QUOTE] Workers uniting to ask for basic shit and rights is what happened when Unions first showed up. Modern Unions screw the worker mercilessly while not really doing much for them. Unions getting so greedy to the point that manufacturers would rather sacrifice build quality and outsource labor to Mexico is what killed Detroit.

I feel really sorry for anyone living in Flint right now

So what do you do with the garbage then? I doubt everyone is going to be willing to drive to their local dumps, if that's even open anymore.

[QUOTE=Snowmew;50812987]Where do you live where trash pickup isn't privatized? The trash business is a [i]booming[/i] business![/QUOTE] Funny enough, a lot of municipalities will provide trash services. I work for a local government here in Georgia and we pickup all residential and commercial waste. Cities that allow private sanitation services are generally those without the budget to get the initial investment off the ground. Although where I work our sanitation services turn a decent net profit, it wasn't an overnight solution. I believe we're now around 6 or 7 years into providing Sanitation services and we're still going fairly strong.

[QUOTE=ZakkShock;50816138]Alabama, we've got "Madison waste management" here.[/QUOTE] Waste Management is a national company that operates smaller branches across the U.S. Up here in Massachusetts, the trucks are just labeled "Waste Management" with the neat little green-yellow WM logo.