311 Toronto Reporting Issue

Today, I tried to report some garbage bags left at a street corner. I did not take a photo when I passed the bags this morning nor when I passed again this evening because it was quite cold. I usually do take a photo and attach it when I tweet to 311 Toronto.

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/552964340199219200]

But instead of the usual response of "We have notified Waste Enforcement", I got the above response. And further:

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/552966261161091072]

I understand the objective of the policy, but I fail to see why me alerting them to garbage being left on the street requires them to collect my information. What they do with the information I give them is up to them.

I am saying "the city is less nice than it should be and you might want to look into it" while the city is telling me that we can only accept your heads up if we know who you are and why you would tell us about this issue. Ultimately, I am disappointed in the response from 311. It is cold today and so when I tried to call 311 to make the complaint after the twitter exchange it was going to be a long wait and I gave up. It is not worth my additional time to fix a problem that the city does not seem to think is important.

In a couple of days maybe it will snow and we can all forget about the garbage bags on the corner until spring just like we do with all the cigarette butts, paper coffee cups and dog poo.

For reference, here are all the waste related complaints I have made to the city using twitter with their responses:

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/387930509818728448]

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/471772473823092736]

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/477071814322311169]

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/487579185339441152]

[tweet https://twitter.com/311Toronto/status/504383622364004353]

These do not include the other random junk that has been left at Avenue and Dupont since the summer, including pails from roofing the adjacent construction site, many lamps (why are there so many lamps?), and yard waste (why lug these to the corner when the city will pick as many as you want at your house?).