When the building dumpster is in everyone’s way
Understanding ADA needs, parking needs and sanitation needs
I was used to unfamiliar numbers calling the condo cellular line, considering I was usually involved in some maintenance or repair project. But I raised an eyebrow when an alderman’s office was on the other line. Huh? One of the condo unit owners in our building (who was giving me — the condo board president at the time — the silent treatment) called the City of Chicago’s non-emergency line to complain that she couldn’t reach our dumpster.
I rolled my eyes, immediately knowing who it was. Not only was it petty to go around the entire board to complain about the dumpster, but it could’ve led to an unnecessary ticket that the association would’ve had to pay. Even if she didn’t want to talk to me, at least talk to other board members to let them know. On top of a million other things for an HOA to do, I now needed to be on dumpster duty.
I walked outside, sighed and called another snow removal guy. Anyone in Chicago knows just how rough it was during the blizzard in February 2021, which delivered as much as 8 inches of snow. In fact, 2020–21 winter “had the longest stretch of a foot or more of snow cover since the 1978–79 winter for both Chicago (15 days) and Rockford (19 days),” according to the National Weather Service.
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Decks and roofs were buried in snow, retail stores ran out of salt, delivery drivers stopped delivering salt because they couldn’t keep track of it and ice melt was flying off store shelves so fast that retail chains were borrowing from each other. The snow was so massive that we didn’t know where to put it. We couldn’t put it in parking spots. We couldn’t move it to the alley, which would block garages and other cars (one of which was mine, which had been stuck in the snow two times just trying to drive). We couldn’t put it in the pathway because then people couldn’t get to the parking lot or basement.
Crowding it around the dumpster seemed like a master plan — until we realized waste management would need to easily access it via their truck. I was begging for just one sunny day. And in the middle of dealing with this blizzard, this unit owner picked a new fight — she had to climb up a small pile of snow to lift the door of the dumpster. I just wanted to create an igloo and hide until spring.
Dumpsters are one of those hate-it-or-love-it-but-you-need-it things that cities with alleys needed. I didn’t particularly miss them when I lived in Jefferson City, Missouri, where residents bought a specific type of garbage bag (to pay garbage tax) and tossed their garbage bags on the lawn. If you didn’t buy that bag, your garbage simply stayed there for weeks. It felt very “New York-ish” to me but with a smaller population. Then I returned to my hometown of Chicago — to debate about dumpsters again.
I sold my first car shortly after moving into my first apartment. I’d made so many repairs on this car that it stopped being worth it, so I was car-less for four years. Because of the neighborhood I lived in — walking distance from a mall, a grocery store, plenty of restaurants and shoes stores, and a collection of retail stores — I never cared. But then I had the bright idea to go on a road trip back to my alma mater. I got in a Suzuki Grand Vitara and remembered how much I loved to drive. With a promotion for a free gas card, I went to a car dealership and left with a brand new car. Just like that, I had a car note.
Recommended Read: “The one piece of advice car salesmen often miss ~ Whether new money or old money, don’t treat people like they have no money”
But now I was fighting about parking spots. Another tenant kept parking in a spot by the parking lot gate because it had been empty for so long. When I paid for the spot, he was too used to parking there and wouldn’t move until I called a tow truck and the police. Shortly after that, the property management company decided they needed that spot for contractors to come in and out of. My car would’ve been blocking the gate.