I couldn't agree more. It's disgraceful what the gutters are like in front of my apartment. For a city that has such high standards when it comes to weekly trash collection you would think they would be more conscious of the trash on the streets. I've written to seeclickfix about not having enough barrels a few times, to no avail.

That's a battle I've had with the city for years. They won't put more trash barrels on places like Central, Shurtleff, Broadway, Hawthorne, etc because people will steal them, put home trash in them, or not really use them at all. Additionally, the city also stated that someone needs to empty them and they don't have the capacity to pick them all up. Shurtleff, Central, and Broadway are disgusting with the amount of trash on the street gutters and sidewalks. They even clog the sewage drains. It's also caused an uptick with rats EVERYWHERE. I see rats on Central, Shurtleff, and Broadway all of the time. It's ridiculous!

I couldn't agree more too. However, the issue is not more trash cans. Just look outside Tedeschi's in Bellingham Square. There are... FOUR trash cans within a 10 foot radius (just on that side of the street alone) and there's still trash on the ground. So people are just not using them. It's time for the CPD to start to heavily ticket for littering. I don't understand why the city doesn't do this since its costing the tax payers MORE money to street sweep and clean almost daily up and down broadway. How about we get some of our money back from the litterers and their mess they create by TICKETING them.

The city looks horrid because of this.. so trashy. And I won't even begin to talk about the rat problems that are caused by trash issues.

It's about time to have a city management that actually lives in Chelsea to understand how it feels to live in an open air dumpster(even when you pay taxes)

After 9 years as a resident and tax payer I can tell you for sure nothing will change unless changes happen at the top, remember the old saying? It starts from the top!

Why 9 years? Still at loss, property still 40k under.

Two advices:
- get used to it
- leave it

I work from home and have a vantage point to the street - I see people walking down the street and driving down the street literally dropping whatever garbage they have in their hand on the ground, even mothers with children in tow. The litter from the school next door when it's open is significant, I literally have to pick up all the trash daily that blows onto my property from the street to keep it from looking disgusting. I do not understand the mentality that there are no resources to empty trash barrels nor do I understand the limited use of the compacting barrels in only strategic areas of the center of town. Every school sidewalk should have at least one barrel and children should be directed to make use of it when they are seen littering. The focus of the police department and all those new officers who are walking the streets or sitting in the square (3 deep) should also be awareness and enforcement of littering - not just crime prevention - when the community looks clean and well-cared for, it encourages all residents to keep it clean.

Richie C assigned this issue to ChelseaDPW

Thanks for engaging in a discussion about this issue. I, too, am very frustrated by trash. I wish the issue was that the City wasn't doing our job, because that would be easier to rectify. We've added more laborers, equipped them with more Madvacs, purchased solar trash cans, added other trash cans, increased street sweeping and created an entirely new trash program. I am out regularly cleaning up places myself. The issue, unfortunately, is that just a few people per block do not care the same way all of you do and that I and my charges do. Police officers writing tickets will not work (nobody throws something on the ground when a police officer is watching). Yes, it is a problem when we put out a barrel and people start using it for household trash (our enforcers actually go through that trash and write up tickets). We are writing many tickets and we have had some success curbing the problem, but I too am still frustrated that we have not succeeded on this issue. For the general public, I think you can: 1.) help clean-up around you, 2.) nicely ask others to do so, 3.) mention it to store owners when you frequent those places, 4.) consider joining neighborhood groups that are active in promoting a cleaner community (TND, for example, is doing an excellent one), 5.) consider maintaining a barrel near you, 6.) continue to talk about it to everyone. I am doing that and do anticipate another community meeting to talk about our next phase of effort on this. In terms of the suggestion of following the street sweeper with a band of cleaners, the problem isn't that we aren't on the street enough cleaning, it is what happens after we leave. It is very discouraging to see how our crews clean a street and a day later they are filthy again. So, it is about getting all of us to not litter and to be empowered to lend a hand when litter does appear. I'll continue to keep this as a top priority. Again, thanks for raising the issue and thanks for anything you do to help keep Chelsea clean.

Thanks for fixing this issue!