On my block, there is an alternating parking ban on garbage/recycling pick-up days, which most people forget/ignore. This week was no different, except for one thing: the yelling.

It was a woman who got caught behind the truck who didn’t want to wait. She suggested - loudly - that the truck pull over to let her by (”I have to catch a PLANE!”). The truck didn’t move. So she leaned on her car horn. The crew picked up recycling bags from the curb, and the truck moved along with them, inch by inch. Finally, the woman turned her car around and addressed the crew one more time with a hearty “fuck you!”

What made this interaction interesting was that is that instead of turning around to begin with, or going down a side street (there were two), she chose to escalate a predicable situation (when the recycling gets picked up sometimes you get caught behind the slow moving truck on a narrow street) into a confrontation. My neighborhood is relatively affluent, and it was kind of embarrassing (although not surprising) that this woman (who I presume lives nearby) acts like people (i.e. city workers) should just do what she wants because she tells them to. And if they don’t, she is going to throw a tantrum. That will show them!

In contrast, people in other (less affluent) neighborhoods have another way of “negotiating” - with cash money. It makes perfect sense that people in blue collar neighborhoods know the economics of getting what you want. Got illegal dumpers leaving mattresses and tires in the alley behind your house? Twenty bucks to the guy who picks up the trash on the curb will make it go away. That’s what people in Larimer do, and I am positive that similar neighborhoods have similar practices.

I would love to know how the recycling/waste collection crews view the “character” of different neighborhoods or different types of residents. What about the glimpses of trash they might see? Are there neighborhoods where they receive greater acknowledgment or recognition from residents as they do their job? What is their schema of the social and spacial urban environment? What does the city “look” like from the back of a garbage truck?