I don’t think so. Sounds more like they just didn’t like the look of it and what it might look or smell like over time.
This is a quote of the M&F Bank CEO, Jeff Sills, from the N&O article (emphasis added by me):
“The placement of the containers near a bank, that has in-and-out traffic and it’s been in the same location for 96 years, they just didn’t think it was appropriate,” he said. “And we felt over time those containers would smell and would be, eventually, an eyesore. And we were receiving that type of complaints from our customers.”
So his logic is that since the bank has been there for 96 years the city of Raleigh cannot change anything around them. They are in fact grandfathered in perpetuity. Some logic.
This continues my thinking that when people start to make a public comment with something like, “We have been in this location for XX years” or “We have lived in this neighborhood for XX years” they seem to have a thinking that they are more important than others.
Are they really kowtowing to a single business? We’re in more trouble than I thought if the city management can’t handle complaints from a minority set of stakeholders.
“Hey @RaleighGov#ralpol Thanks for taking my request for public records of all public complaints and city correspondence concerning the #molok containers. I can’t wait to see the results. They should be eye-opening.”
Me too. Asking for specifics and not a canned response. Told him social media was blowing up. Want to know who complained, why they have so much power, and who is footing the install and de-install costs.
Just an idea… would this be a think that NCSU might want to pickup as a pilot program? I hate to see the plug being pulled so quickly after this rolled out. I know NCSU has lots of dumpsters rather than the blue/green bins, but we (as a City) really didn’t give this a very full evaluation.
Are these barrels metal?
The ones I saw in Florence were metal, and reminded me of national park bear proof bins - with an Italian flair for style of course.
If rats are the issue - that is the solution. Metal tops, metal containers below.
The N&O story sure made it sound like the City was reacting to the potential to problems, rather than anything specific. What baloney.
This is ridiculous and another example of why we need new leadership this October. I have walked by these many times and I’ve never been bothered the least bit by any sort of odors. I cannot even come close to saying the same thing for the old fashioned plastic trash cans. I might also add that we lived near a commercial area that has trash bins and every morning at 5:30 or 6 I can hear the metal containers being picked up and emptied by the garbage trucks. It is a very loud and disruptive sound. From what I understand these underground trash bins use a vacuum method that is much quieter. It’s definitely time for a change in Raleigh if our city council and staff acquiesces to the unreasonable complaints of a few disgruntled people
I completely agree. Frankly, this reminds me quite a bit of when the Oxford Rd. sidewalks were cancelled after years of planning. This is one of the problems with civic outreach and participation — only the opposing voices make the effort to raise their voice and shout something down, while the wider population tends to passively accept or welcome change. We as a city need to be more vocal about the things we want and support.
Per Oxford Rd I (on behalf of BPAC) actually presented to council on that a few months back when it was sent to our committee for review. Spoiler, we advised moving forward with the sidewalk.
Ok I’ve posted this explanation on Twitter and City-Data so now it goes here.
The bins went in front of Mechanics & Farmers Bank. This is a black-owned bank, only one in the city and one of few in the state or country for that matter. It is one of the largest in the country with branches in each of the state’s largest cities, and the second oldest as well, being founded in 1907.
It does not take a lot of thinking to see the optics problem here.
“Sorry about that centuries long history of slavery, segregation, discrimination, racism, redlining, urban renewal business, now can this 112 year old community institution please hold the trash from our restaurants and bars on its doorstep for a while?”
The optics would not be so bad if this were one of two dozen spots around town. But the only one, and the very first? Um, yeah. Oops. I presume this is a good faith oversight, or at least I hope so.
Put it half a block north, on either side of Wilmington, in front of one of the parking decks. Or a block south in front of the city’s building at 1 Exchange Plaza. Or in front of city hall. Or in front of the awful AT&T building two blocks west. Or in front of one of the blank parts of the Wells Fargo buildings a block west. (But would they just sit there and allow it?) There are dozens of spots for the pilot that would not have this issue. Yeah. Oops!
Not to mention that this area has a heavy concentration of restaurants that have tons of reeking garbage bins lining the sidewalks. The particular location was a no-parking zone on the street that also didn’t have a storefont opening up to it. My guess is that it seemed like a good location because of need and limited disruption to existing businesses/parking.
I would think that these are the reasons the location was chosen for the pilot because it seems like an overall improvement to the sidewalk experience from the existing state.
This is true. These are installed out of direct sight of the bank and are on the other side of the sidewalk from the planted side of their surface parking lot, and they are in the street! Their building has zero windows facing east as well. The people that have to actually look at these units are the folks and diners at Sitti and Gravy, which are also closer to the actual units.
Is this really more about taking street parking away from the bank’s customers? I dunno…
