Back in May, the Portland City Council reversed its traditional policy of picking up leaves for free in certain neighborhoods—instituting, instead, a $30 annual fee for most residents inside one of Portland’s 28 “leaf removal districts.”
It was one of the smaller components of a painful budget compromise, forcing residents in leafier, nicer neighborhoods to pitch in, a process largely marked by outrage over sewer and water rate hikes. But this month, leaf collection notices started dropping into mailboxes—with warning that a bill would eventually follow—and now some people are scratching their heads about how the fees will work or raising questions over wording that focuses on residents, not homeowners.
Check out this Tweet sent to Mayor Sam Adams:
So, quickly, here’s the deal: The notices put the onus on “residents” because that gets the city around state rules that limit property tax levies. If you’re lucky enough to own the place where you live, you have to pay up. If you’re just renting a house, you still have to pay up—a la garbage fees—unless you work it out with the landlord. If you rent an apartment, it’s your property manager’s problem. And rich neighborhoods are paying as much as less-rich neighborhoods for the same level of service.
Whatever you do, don’t throw the notices away, because the city will get its collections dogs after your landlord, and that’s rarely a fun thing to explain to the person holding your lease.
Keep railing against the ‘eeeevil corporations’ kids, but don’t forget who literally has a gun to your head while they rob you blind.
@ D: Is it the Hyperbole Patrol?
I hope for your sake it’s not the “You’re Literally Mis-using The Word ‘Literally'” Death Squad.
Yeah, I agree with D, how dare the council charge us money for a service they provide for us. They should be giving us all our services for free without us paying any taxes. Anything else is just evil socialism.
City Council is LITERALLY coming to your house tonight to kill your puppy and steal your television.
Folks, before we judge D, I think we need to acknowledge that he may have been victim to a serious crime and is disoriented from the trauma.
D, next time someone puts a gun to your head & robs you blind, remember: A.) A messageboard does not function as a police report. B.) If men show up at your house waving guns and shouting “We’re the leaf collectors!” DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.
Leaf collectors are easily identifiable by their collecting of leaves and requiring a reasonable fee for their services.
@Night Moves win!
$30! PORTLAND IS LITERALLY RAPING ME WITH LEAFS!! SAM ADAMS IS THE THE NEW STALIN!!!
“If you’re just renting a house, you still have to pay up—a la garbage fees—unless you work it out with the landlord.”
In Oregon, the law sez that landlords must provide trash service for their tenants. I wonder how this leaf thing fits into that?
I would feel a little better about this fee if I didn’t already have to take care of the city’s two sweetgums on my parking strip. At least once per year a giant branch comes off. One time it damaged the neighbor’s car. Who has to saw the branch into manageable pieces (log-sized, yo)? I do. Who had to pay a tree service to trim them properly? I did. When do sweetgum leaves finish falling? After my two scheduled pickups. And then there are the gumballs and the buckling sidewalks which are my responsibility too. Yet the city won’t allow these two “junk trees” (arborist’s words) to be cut down.
When the children grow older and try to get jobs, they will quickly tire of the government overlords who do nothing but take from the citizenry.
Reasonable? What are we paying property taxes and garbage & recycling fees for in the first place?
I have no trees in my yard that drop leaves into the street. My only trees are in the back yard and they don’t lose their leaves in the fall. The city better not bill me for a service that I don’t need.
Hello!! Welcome to communisum in Portland…. If you want to get a permit to do anything to you property, you must add tree’s to your parking strip…. therefore you must pay the city $30 to clean up the leaves.. Even if I maintain my property and pay an abscene amount of money to a local landscaper to maintain and remove yard debris, I get it in the shorts… Fricken communists!! I really am starting to dislike Multnomah County!!!!!! I love Portland and have lived here all my life. There is no place I’d rather be, but enough is enough!!!
Those of us who don’t live in “leaf districts” have to rake our own leaves, load them into a vehicle, drive them to a “leaf depot” at a designated time and place and then pay the city to take them from us. We usually pay at least $30 a season to go through this process. I have very little sympathy for those of you who will continue to rake all your leaves into the street and have the city clean up after you, and now have to pay for that service. This is simply a correction of a longtime inequity between neighborhoods.
@pdxrm – What about those of us who are just lazy fucks and don’t rake up the leaves at all?
@pdxrm
You make a good point. I’m a new homeowner and I’m getting hit with various fees and taxes. But in this case–the leaves have to be cleaned up, otherwise they’ll become soil, and come spring we’ll have grass and weeds growing in the street. I don’t have a vehicle anyway (couldn’t have afforded a house if I had one), so I’m glad that the city is cleaning up the leaves in the street. I don’t agree with everything the city does, but this is a rather important part of keeping the city livable, so I’m willing to pay it (not that I have any choice in the matter).
@HPM
Ah yes, the “Fricken communists.” I’ve heard of them–followers of Friederich Fricken, who lived in a decaying flat in London at the same time that Marx was there…they sometimes scuffled in the British Library shorty after opening time, each trying to get the desk closest to the heating vent. Unfortunately Karl gets all the attention, but how different it might be if history had recognized “Frickenism” instead of “Marxism” as the hope of the masses. (“From each according to his ability, to each whatever he fricken wants.”)
And, yes, if you’ve worked your way up to six consecutive exclamation points, you definitely dislike Multnomah County. You’re nearing the dreaded seventh exclamation point, a level of exasperation rarely reached by even the crankiest of human beings. Good luck to you.
If the leaves don’t get taken care of then they end up clogging the storm drains. It’s cheaper (and easier) to grab the leaves than to deal with clogged drains and street flooding. The fee of $30 a year seems reasonable enough.
Rich neighborhoods also have to pay for trick-er-treeters that get dropped off by hicksville hoods that can’t afford the candy. THIS is how they will pay back the rich for growing richer every year?