garbage cans

In London there are no garbage cans in the tube. Only when you emerge from the underground and then you can find a place to dispose of it on the street. They do this, I’ve heard, to deprive terrorists of places to leave bombs. Not bad thinking, I suppose. And I didn’t mind at all carrying a banana peel from Marble Arch all the way to Westminster (not all that far, but two subway lines away) and up into the street to find a place to throw it away. Stowing a banana peel in one’s bag is messy so it made the journey in my hand, but it was a small sacrifice in the global war on terror.

On the other hand the trashcan shortage here in Baltimore seems without rhyme or reason (especially reason). When I moved here I found that I could walk from my apartment to my office and pass not a single trashcan, but five mailboxes. I considered mailing my garbage, but that would be a federal offense. Now, years later, the mailboxes are mostly gone – fallen victim to workforce shrinkage at the postal service – and the garbage cans remain conspicuously absent. The current mayor seems to be trying to give us a place to toss our refuse, a couple of garbage cans have been appearing here and there. But the need still far exceeds the presence. No reason, like the eternal GWOT, supports this no-garbage can mentality. It seems to be simply a resistance to public trash. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of garbage, but Baltimore seems to just want to keep it inside. Yeah, keep it hidden, that’s the ticket.