BALTIMORE — Trash, stinky piles of trash covered in flies.
It’s what Stacey Forest smells every time the door to her back patio of her home on N Belnord Ave in Patterson Park.
She’s put in 3-1-1 requests, emailed her councilman, sent pictures of the mess.
“This is ridiculous this is where I live," Forest said.
She said sometimes she will see small spotty cleanups in nearby ally’s— but since the pandemic started her unsightly view has only gotten worse.
“I’m angry because as a Baltimore City Resident we pay some of the highest taxes in the state. You’re telling me I can’t get my trash picked up the one day a week we are required to get it done.”
Since the trash wasn’t picked up on Thursday they’ve gone over 10 days since they’ve had the trash picked up.
That’s not even the worst that’s happened since the pandemic.
Forest said they've had periods where they went 4 weeks without a pickup.
“The response we’ve been hearing is that well they still have people off from COVID. That’s not a reason anymore that’s an excuse. Good leadership has contingency plans, and right now I’m putting this on city leadership because they should have demanded this of the people they put in charge of these agencies and they have not done that.”
A spokesperson for DPW said they are experiencing issues all over the city and no one is getting singled out.
The department says it plans to investigate the issues happening in this area.
Forest and her neighbors say they are tired of waiting.
“We have decided to get a U-Haul van and load as much as we can into the U-Haul van and dump it in front of City Hall," Forest said. "Perhaps maybe they’ll get it picked up down there.”
Their frustration like the trash, is piling up.
They say delays in service are causing a constant loss in quality of life for the people who live there.
