Autumn Leaves in PDX: Is the City "Nudging" Us?
Paul Gronke
UPDATE: Jeff Alworth nailed this one. City has changed its policy, now you need only sign a form saying you cleaned your leaves. O story
The trees are bursting with color and the leaves are falling. It's been a gorgeous fall thus far. And of course, fall brings to mind ... skidding down the hill, trying not to take out the stop sign while I attempt to brake on 4 inches of leaves in the road.
Portland is known for its trees, and in November, most residents know it's time to get off our bike, stop riding your motor scooter, and drive with care, and the roads get covered with slick and slippery leaves. The City has historically had an odd policy about leaves.
Some neighborhoods have benefitted from free hauling and street cleaning. I'm not sure why some neighborhoods have gotten this service for free while the rest of the City has to haul their own leaves, but it's not too surprising that the map of the leaf districts overlaps pretty heavily with maps that show percent native born, level of income, and educational attainment (maps here). The folks that missed the boat seems to be West / Raleigh Hills.
The squawking has started over at bojack. Some are frustrated at paying for a service that used to be provided for free. Others (including Bogdanski) think this is an illegal tax. And some are just pissed off at anything that comes out of City Hall these days.
I don't know where some of these commenters live, but in my neighborhood, the City really has to sweep the leaves. Otherwise, it's a traffic hazard.
But I'm interested in something different--how citizens are going to respond to this new policy. At the link on Bogdanski's site, you can find the form to "opt out" of the City's cleanup fee. Few of my neighbors know about the fee at all (we never received the mailer at my house even though our pickup is scheduled on Nov 20), and even fewer know about the opt out.
In Nudge Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (the latter now a policy advisor in the White House), summarize a lot of behavioral economic and psychological research into the use of incentives and penalties, and how they can be used to encourage socially beneficial behavior. The core argument is that we don't regulate behavior, we "nudge" behavior. This leaves the choice to the individual.
I'm more like Bogdanski that I like to admit--I took to my leaves with reckless abandon last weekend, sweeping, grinding, mulching... HEY! I'm being nudged! A number of my neighbors behaved the same way. Some of my other neighbors seem to have been nudged in the opposite direction. You are not supposed to rake the leaves from your yard into the street, but if you're making me pay $30, why not? (Maybe I am not surprised that most of the "clean" houses are at my end of the street, the "wrong end" of Eastmoreland, where my neighbors include some professors, retirees, young couples, and a Tri Met bus driver. Down the hill, the trees are a lot bigger and the piles of leaves a lot deeper.)
Is this policy going to successfully "nudge" Portlanders? Will we end up with cleaner streets or a leaf mess that was worse than before? Or are the citizens just going to be pissed off when those unexpected $30 bills arrive in the mail?
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11:47 a.m.
Nov 12, '10
I don't think this is a nudge, rather a crass attempt to find new revenue. But if it is a nudge, I am not sure my neighbors are being nudged in the right direction: there seems to be a lot more leaves being taken from lawns and dumped on the street this year, exacerbating the problem for bikers/parkers/etc.
Maintaining streets, which includes keeping them clean, repaired, etc. is a vital city function and should come from general funds.
4:35 p.m.
Nov 12, '10
I concur. Though it is also tempered by Kari's comment, which I am sympathetic too as well when he said:
1:51 p.m.
Nov 12, '10
This is a problem when you get into budget holes--call it "trickle down" defunding of services. States and cities get squeezed, but because there's such a hardcore anti-tax sentiment (linked not coincidentally to a hardcore anti-tax lobby), it's easier to just charge fees for services. Perversely this enrages taxpayers more, and they become even more anti-tax.
Of course, we know from infinite surveys that they also love their services, so it's a huge debacle.
3:05 p.m.
Nov 12, '10
There was a city spokesperson a year or two ago who said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Your leaves are your problem. Nobody expects the City to come by and sweep up your grass clippings either."
Do I wish we had leaf pickup? Sure. But on the long list of social priorities that should be funded by taxpayers, I think leaf pickup ranks pretty darn low.
Count me as someone who would like to see schools fully funded before leaf pickup is fully funded.
3:28 p.m.
Nov 12, '10
Sure there are reasons why someone can complain about having to pay for leaf pickup (although Jack Bog doesn't need any excuse to complain about something that his majesty doesn't like). The city picks up leaves (and washes the streets) in my neighborhood, and doesn't in others. Why should those neighbors' tax dollars clean my streets and not theirs?
The beautiful elms and maples in my neighborhood are beautiful, and my neighbors and I should be willing to pay a small fee to get the leaves picked up.
7:03 p.m.
Nov 12, '10
I think most people who are upset about the new leaf removal fee in Portland are not upset about the cost but rather how the program has been rolled out. The City should have started explaining the fees to residents and businesses when the Bureau of Transportation's budget was adopted (several months ago).
Even though the leaf removal sweeps have already started, many people in the leaf removal districts have still not received the informational pamphlets (which buried the cost in the middle of the flier), the City's leaf removal website does not have answers to many key questions, the online 'opt-out' form has been changed at least twice, and the person answering the City's 'leaf removal hotline' is giving out erroneous information to residents (including me).
I spoke directly with the Director of the Bureau of Transportation (Susan Keil) on Wednesday and she still wasn't sure whether people living in condos and apartments would be billed separately by unit (using the water bureau database) or have just one fee for the entire building.
Considering this new fee hits about 30,000 businesses and residences, one might hope that the Bureau of Transportation would have worked out these issues in advance.