Raking leaves in Baltimore can be like the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day," in which the same inexplicable circumstances are continually replayed.
Residents see fliers asking them to rake their leaves to the curb by a deadline so that city trucks can vacuum them up. They dutifully rake to the curb, but the trucks never show, and winter rains turn the piles to muddy slabs of sludge that people shovel into trash bags come spring.
The next fall, it's deja vu all over again. The fliers appear. The people rake. Rains fall. Trucks don't show, and out come the shovels and the grumbling.
"Rarely, if ever, since God created leaves, has the city ever adhered to its own system of leaf collection," complained Norman Brubeck, administrator for the Homeland Association Inc., which paid a private hauler $1,800 this fall because the city didn't clear about two-thirds of the neighborhood streets.
Griping about the city's complex leaf-collection policies is as much a seasonal tradition in the city's tree-lined northern and western sections as complaining about mall traffic is in the suburbs.
Some neighborhoods, such as Roland Park, Guilford, Homeland and Mount Washington, are on the city's list to have their streets cleaned by the city's fleet of 15 vacuum trucks between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. The city sometimes makes the dates, sometimes it doesn't.
Other nearby neighborhoods, such as Evergreen, Oakenshawe and Belvedere, have just as many trees but are required to bag their leaves and leave them beside the curb.
"We're the poor stepchildren. Oakenshawe has no leaf collection, but Guilford does," said Laurie Feinberg, a member of the Oakenshawe Community Association. "I think there's an income correlation."
Community leaders in several - but not all - of these neighborhoods complained about late or nonexistent leaf collection this fall. Only about 10 percent of Mount Washington's curbs have been cleared, while about 70 percent of Roland Park's have been.
One problem is that some community association presidents don't know whether they're supposed to bag or rake to the curb. They say that when they call the city, they get contradictory information.
Department of Public Works officials said yesterday that leaf pickup has been two or three weeks later than scheduled in some areas, such as Mount Washington, because weather conditions made the leaves fall later.
"We're asking people to be as patient as they can be. We'll get to them as soon as we can," said Kurt Kocher, department spokesman. "We're doing everything possible to get all of the leaves up by Dec. 31."
The city will look into complaints about alleged disparities in collection between neighborhoods, Kocher said.
Joe Kolodziejski, chief of the Bureau of Solid Waste, said that complaints were down about 25 percent this year compared to last.
Leaves not on schedule
"It's never going to go perfectly," said Kolodziejski. "This year, the leaves did not fall in time for the scheduled weeks of collection."
Many community leaders who complain about leaf collection acknowledge that it should not be among the city's top priorities. There are more pressing problems - including one of the nation's worst heroin addition rates, a projected $59 million deficit over three years, a dysfunctional criminal justice system and about 40,000 vacant or abandoned homes.
A cautionary tale
Leaves, at worst, menace storm drains.
But in one case, a failure to clear them helped force a school's evacuation.
On Nov. 22, a man headed to a parent-teacher conference at Mount Washington Elementary School in the 1800 block of Sulgrave Ave. parked in a pile of leaves that the city had failed to sweep up, said Lisa Harvin, the school's principal.
The underside of his car was hot. While the man was chatting with a teacher about his first-grader's performance, leaves beneath the car caught fire. The man fought the blaze with an extinguisher from the school, but the flames spread, destroying his Mazda RX-7.
More than 280 students were be evacuated because of the smoke. They stood outside without their coats, shivering.
Only after the fire did the city become vigilant - but not about the leaves, Harvin said. Police ticketed more than a dozen cars, including the principal's, that were parked illegally on Sulgrave Avenue.
"Obviously, the city has been negligent, because the piles of leaves are still here," Harvin said.
A better report card
Some neighborhoods report good service. Carolyn Spector of the Blythewood community said she was pleased to see the vacuum trucks rumble by her home on Blythewood Road on Nov. 27. "I'd give the city an A-minus or B-plus in terms of leaf pickup. They came by twice last year."
Unclear instructions
Catherine Evans, president of the Belvedere Improvement Association, said she received a flier from the city that was unclear as to which neighborhoods would receive vacuum truck service and which should bag their leaves.
"When I called the Department of Public Works, the person I talked to said they didn't know anything about it," Evans said.
"The people in this community are long-term residents," she said. "They don't ask for much. But they do want their leaves picked up."
John Mack, president of the Mount Washington Improvement Association, said: "Leaf pickup is a service we look forward to every fall, but it never seems to work. It's a continuing source of frustration."
