BALTIMORE — Every morning 54-year-old Rodney Hall is out in front of his Upton neighborhood apartment picking up trash. On Wednesday, after trash pickup WMAR-2 News found the disabled man using his walking crutches to pick up trash after sanitation crews emptied garbage cans on his side of Myrtle Avenue.
"Sometimes things fall out and they leave it behind," said Hall. "Lately I've noticed a supervisor following. That's good but I still need to cleanup."
Hall told WMAR-2 News if he's not picking up after garbage men he's picking up items that are either illegally dumped or thrown on the ground by people passing by.
"They drop it in front of your door and they don’t live in the area," he said. "I have to come out here and clean it up because I refuse to have it in front of my door."
The same goes for his neighbor Tiffany Henderson. The mother of three says she even pays her children to help clean up the mess.
"It can get pretty bad," she said, "especially without the street sweepers."
Neighbors in the Upton neighborhood haven't seen a street sweeper since before the pandemic.
"It's either you leave the trash there or you pick it up yourself," said Henderson.
As WMAR-2 News has reported, street sweeping services was suspended back in March. Baltimore City's Department of Public Works recently said it was moving crews from other service areas, including street sweeping over to help with trash collection.
"We need services restored," said Hall. "We need street sweeping to come back and garbage collection two times a week. Not just one. This is ridiculous. When you come out here in the morning rats have the run of it."
In response to our story a spokesperson with DPW said, "Street sweeping has not been suspended. It has been modified, limited to gateways to avoid any disruptions to residents working from home. Rat abatement has been up and running for over a month."
