Bye-Bye Abandoned Shopping Carts
I think that I could call this hot-line every single day. There are always shopping carts – I assume from the nearby Albertsons – sitting along my street. But what I wonder is if they’ll pick up carts that are obviously on private property, not just along the boulevards or near bus stops?
I have neighbors who are um…interesting….to say the least. They have a personal collection of shopping carts on their lawn. Sometimes just one – sometimes two or three. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen them out collecting cans from the neighborhood, and while they have several cars in the driveway – I’ve never seen any of them move and I believe they usually walk to the grocery store. So they do use the carts, but when they’re not in use they don’t put them in the garage, they leave them out on the lawn.
My neighborhood is by no means fancy, but their house is one of just a few that looks trashy.
No – I’ve never talked to them about it – my one conversation with them put me off a bit. I met one of the three roommates shortly after moving in a few years ago when she was sitting outside reading a magazine and drinking a beer when I got home from work. She couldn’t go inside because her roommates were “preoccupied” (my word, hers was R-rated.) This is what she yells at me from across the street just after introducing ourselves.
So if I call the shopping cart hotline on them, do you think they’ll get picked up from where they sit up near the house?
Should I call – or is that being a bad neighbor?
Although the Abandoned Cart hotline number would prove very useful for shopping cart issues, it sounds like the City of Portland’s Residential Inspections section, at (503) 823-7306, would be more helpful in addressing multiple issues in relation to your neighbor’s messy property. Making a report to the Bureau of Development Services Residential Inspections helps enforce City Code Title 29.
They deal with issues such as:
1. Housing – health, sanitation, life safety
> Substandard Housing Complaints/Inspections – no running water, leaking plumbing, etc
> Housing Complaints – occupying a tent/trailer/camper on private property
2. Nuisance – exterior trash/debris, open/vacant structures, broken sewers or cess pool
> Tall grass & weeds (May through October)
> Illegal dumping on private land
> Derelict / Abandoned Buildings
> Street / Sidewalk obstructions including vegetation coming from the property
Planter boxes (etc) must be blocking the ENTIRE sidewalk to be considered an obstruction
> Dead or dangerous trees creating a hazard on private property
3. Disabled Vehicles on Private Property – visibly disabled vehicles stored on an unpaved surface.
If your neighbor has an Operable vehicle being stored on private property on an unpaved surface, please contact Compliance Services at 503-823-7305.
If they have Abandoned autos on the street and/or on public property, you may contact Abandoned Autos at 503-823-6814.
I hope this information will prove helpful. Here is the website address for future reference: http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=28397
Thanks for the info T. Solano. My neighborhood goes through periods of extensive shopping cart abuse & abandonment. Usually the shopping carts end up in front of our house, making my up-and-coming neighborhood feel more like hobo town. Honestly, I feel like the abandoned shopping carts are a gateway/green light for increased vandalism and unsavory behavior. I notice people seem to think that it’s suddenly ok for their dogs to s**t in our yard and throw garbage on our lawn for example.
lots of good info. Thanks one and all!
The abandoned auto hotline works.
My neighbors abandoned a dead car in front of our house — after a month I called the hotline and a week later the city came and tagged the car. 3 days later the car was gone. Now if only I could get the city to remove the neighbors’ constantly barking dogs and blaring stereo — that is not quite as easy. (And yes I have spoken to the neighbors and the city about all these things.)
Shopping carts wouldn’t even faze me. The last place I lived had prostitutes, drug dealers and a meth lab across the street. Two or three times a week the police would drag one of the residents of our complex away.