One example of privitization in St. Paul is garbage collection. Does anyone believe that our current system of having every homeowner make their own arrangements is optimal? I live next door to an alleyway and not a day goes by that I don't have at least one behemoth truck coming by to collect from one home on the block. There are days when as many as three trucks pound their way past my house. I can't believe that this is the most efficient way to collect garbage.
This system requires many more trucks, drivers, fuel and truck hours to collect a given amount of garbage than is necessary. Then there is the noise, broken curbs and ruined shrubs caused by at least three times as many trips as necessary to collect the garbage on a single block. It's not privitazation per se that is at fault, just this particular type of laizzez faire free market type of privitization. We could stop short of municipal collection but still avoid the mess we have now by having the city let exclusive contracts for individual neighborhoods. This would preserve competition among haulers but end the excessive amount of garbage truck traffic we now experience. And it might even cost us less. How did we ever wind up with this ridiculous system? Charlie Swope Ward 1 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
