Lies Your City Tells You

Vancouver prides itself on being a green city. They promise to compost your leaves in the fall, so you don't just throw them on the street.

Not only do leaves in the street make a slippery mess for pedestrians and cyclists, but they also block the storm sewers, leading to flooding during the rain storms we get in November and December.

The City of Vancouver promises unlimited leaf collection every week during the Fall.

Like a good citizen, I pick up my leaves and put them in the appropriate containers.

Never have they picked up my leaves, without me calling, or e-mailing, or e-mailing a city councillor. They always give some lame excuse that they didn't get to my street that week because they were busy. Well, if you're that busy, hire more staff. Or stop telling people you pick up the leaves every week.

During the last municipal election campaign a few months back, I tweeted that I wasn't voting Vision (the party in power) because they couldn't even organize leaf pick-up. Someone actually tweeted back that it wasn't the councillor's job to make sure the City met its commitments.

Maybe that's the real problem. Our politicians have completely dropped the pretence that the City should exist to serve its residents. Am I too naive to believe that that's what a city government is for?