Re “City makes homeowners jump through hoops to oppose new trash fee” (April 21): We the public have been told to expect that we can object to the trash fee proposal via a postcard which we may sign and send to City Hall. A funny thing happened when there was no postcard but instead a multi-page document having the last page as the document to sign and send. It is as bad as telling us that the trash fee would be $23-$29 when it became twice that much. Turn to this page and see what is meant by “bait and switch.”
— Harvey Goldstein, Carmel Valley
I own a home in the city of San Diego. It is not my permanent residence. I did not receive a ballot on the recent vote for changing the rules for trash pickup. But the city of San Diego was able to “find” my address and send me a notice of how much my trash services (in San Diego) would be. Yet the city could not find my permanent address to send me a ballot? Isn’t that “taxation without representation”? How can that be legal?
And the trash fee is mandatory? I live in the county where I can choose a trash provider or I can choose not to have trash service. The city needs to get out of the trash business, like many other cities, and let people pick which company they want. Can the city legally force people to pay for trash service?
— Barbara McCoy, La Mesa
Our one-building, four-unit condominium shares black/blue/green refuse bins, with trash pick-up provided by the city of San Diego. Under the proposed plan to gather new revenue, it appears each of the four units will be delivered one black bin, one blue bin and one green bin — even though we absolutely do not want or need 16 bins!
Also, our current bins are in excellent condition and do not need replacement. I hope the city identifies a way to avoid the terrible waste of replacing good bins, as well as not delivering an excess of unwanted/unneeded bins to multi-unit properties that can effectively share receptacles.
The city needs to ensure that multi-unit properties have the ability to opt out of having at least one of each bin.
— Debbie Malcarne, Pacific Beach
