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Sigh. 2 years later. Still no solution.

For a while there I thought that we could actually get rid of this blog. I thought that our many problems were solved. Okay, many of our original problems were solved but unfortunately we are STILL stuck with the garbage problem. Here follow copies of the photos and the electronic complaints that I have been sending to the gemeente since the end of May this year.

Sent 31 May, 2011

Okay, I have kept quiet for a long time, but the rubbish problem on the corner of the OZ Armsteeg and the Warmoesstraat has NOT improved. I do appreciate the efforts of the reiniging/gemeente around Christmas and the New Year to force the horeca in the Warmoesstraat to sign a formal rubbish contract. But to my intense frustration, due to the badly executed Christmas action, all the work that we as residents have put in over the many many years to reduce the rubbish mountain in the OZ Armsteeg has been totally undone.

Please witness the attached series of photos from the last few days. It started on Saturday with a few rubbish bags that get left on the corner. Over the next few days more and more rubbish gets added. By Monday evening there is a rubbish heap that extends about a metre and half into the alley, is half a metre high, and about a metre wide. Finally on Tuesday morning there is a MOUNTAIN of rubbish that is taller than an adult, extends 4 metres into the alley and spills out onto the Warmoesstraat. Combined with the &*@#!!#@ bikes/fietswrakken that have still not been picked up, there is less than half a metre of space through which we can actually exit the OZ Armsteeg.

[As a side note the 12 bikes/fietswrakken have been there for several months. I have rung several times about them; I have talked to two handhavers about them; my husband has recently sent an email to Roel Plugge. But they are STILL there. Please please please remove them!]

I am EXTREMELY disappointed. We have worked very hard to convince our neighbours (mostly horeca) that they should NOT be dumping their rubbish in front of *our* front door. Just before Christmas the rubbish mountain had more or less dwindled to a semi-respectable, almost copeable rubbish pile. But the current situation is unacceptable and totally not good for my blood pressure.

Now we are back to where we started from. See Rubbish Photos for photos from 2006-2007. See also this story, from September 2008, about the history of the rubbish mountain: Street corner history. This is a problem that has existed for more than TEN YEARS. And, no, I’m still not used to it, and, yes, it still irritates me that my neighbours haven’t figured out a better place for their rubbish. (If the links don’t work please go to http://www.watisermismetdezesteeg.nl and click on the links “Rubbish photos” and “Street corner history” on the top right hand side.)

Okay, rather than only complaining, complaining, and complaining some more, I also have some suggestions that may (or probably may not) help.

(1) Please put up a sign on the side of Warmoesstraat 23, in the OZ Armsteeg, saying when rubbish may be put there, and when it will be picked up. Since Christmas there is so much confusion that our new neighbours (KLM huisjes, for example) have no idea when the rubbish will be picked up. This sign should clearly state that only household rubbish from the Oudezijds Armsteeg should be placed there and definitely not commercial rubbish.

(2) Please ask the Reiniging to pick up the stray bags of rubbish that do get left there, even when it is not a rubbish day. I realise that this possibly only encourages people to leave bags there on non-rubbish days. But the alternative is that rubbish only attracts more and more rubbish (see attached photos)

(3) Please send a letter to ALL the apartments/horeca in the Warmoesstraat and alleys that rubbish should NOT be placed/dumped/deposited on the corner of the Warmoesstraat and OZ Armsteeg. PUT YOUR OWN RUBBISH IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN FRONT DOOR!!!

(4) I believe that the only long-term solution to getting rid of the rubbish mountain in the OZ Armsteeg is to build something that makes it impossible for people to leave their rubbish there. I suggest that the rubbish bin that is now there should be placed somewhere else (Guldenhandsteeg, eg), or removed entirely, and that for example a gigantic cement box for plants should be placed on the corner.

I realise that some of my suggestions conflict with each other, but, in desperation, I offer them in any case. I am really really REALLY fed up with this ongoing, unsolved, aggravating, twice-weekly problem. My corner of the world is not Naples, but it sure as heck feels like it sometimes.

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