Parking is already an issue in the high student population areas around campus, and Muncie Sanitary District has just made it worse. Residents of the neighborhood east of New York Avenue and west of Wheeling Avenue are now required to put their trash on street curbs instead of in alleys behind their homes.
Muncie Sanitary District should have considered the consequences of moving trash pickup to the curb before taking potential parking spaces away and inconveniencing students.
The curbs where trash is supposed to be picked up from now on are typically crowded with parked cars from students and other people who live in the neighborhood. With the current bumper-to-bumper parking, it's likely most students rely on parking at the curb because there aren't other options available. Now that trash cans have to share the same space the problem can only get worse.
Officials point to the fact that two Southside communities have already had the same policy put in place with few complaints. The problem with that logic is that the areas close to campus have many residences where multiple students live. Families can share vehicles, but six college students renting a house together will have multiple cars that have to be parked somewhere.
Parking is only one of the problems students could face because of the new policy. If trash trucks can't get to the trash because parked cars are in the way, the trash simply won't be picked up. Muncie Sanitary District has made the existing problem with parking worse and created a new problem in one fell swoop. After all, no student wants to choose between having a place to park their car and living in a home free of trash.
The trash pickup location move came because it will cost the city less money. The new locations will require one worker to collect trash instead of the three that were needed in the past. Saving taxpayer money is a good thing, but not when the money is being taken away from a service and causing new issues as a result.
The negative consequences of changing the trash pickup procedure far outweigh any benefits, especially when the parking situations at residences close to campus are already overcrowded with multiple-student homes that have numerous cars. Muncie Sanitary District should have considered the repercussions of trying to save a few bucks instead of deciding to deal with them after the fact.
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