Dependable Erection

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Little known municipal laws

Was looking something up in the Durham City Code earlier and stumbled upon this. Gotta say, we've got some pretty good laws on the books in Durham. Wonder whose responsibility it is to have this one enforced:
Sec. 26-121. Duty of seller of goods, etc., of such nature that purchases throw containers, etc., on sidewalks and streets.
It shall be unlawful for any person selling goods, wares or merchandise of such nature that the purchasers thereof throw the containers or wrappers of such goods, wares or merchandise or portions of the goods, wares or merchandise themselves on the sidewalks, streets or other public ways of the city to allow such containers, wrappers or portions of such goods, wares or merchandise, or any part thereof, to remain thereon. Any person selling goods, wares or merchandise of such a nature shall also keep his or her premises clean and free from such containers or wrappers or portions of goods, wares and merchandise, so that the same will not be blown or otherwise transferred to the streets, sidewalks or other public ways.
(Code 1964, § 9-56; Code 1982, § 10-107)

What that means is that if you own, say, a McDonald's or other fast food franchise, and any of your stuff is packaged such that people might throw it out on the streets, it's your responsibility to see that it gets picked up.

But as Mrs. D has pointed out on numerous occasions, nowhere is picking up other people's trash as much a part of the social calendar as it is in Durham. So as long as we have all of these volunteers willing to pick up other people's trash, we can have all the fancy laws to make our elected officials feel good as possible, and they don't have to worry about how to actually, you know, enforce them.

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2 Comments:

  • Hey - could be worse...

    Fastest ticket agent in the far east: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/guy-gets-ticket-30-second_n_525091.html


    Sid.

    By Blogger David Prince, at 1:46 PM  

  • Well, we have no parking meters in Durham, so not an issue here. They have that kind of set up on campus, though, so maybe the Duke Police could study that.

    I just love the fact that we have these progressive ordinances in our town (for example, in addition to the county ordinance regarding loose dogs, there's also a city ordinance against allowing your dog out in your neighborhood on trash pickup day and having it knock over your neighbor's trash can) but haven't given the slightest thought to actually, you know, enforcing them. As though all our council has to do is say, "littering is a crime," and people will magically turn Durham into the jewel of the Piedmont.

    Sigh.

    By Blogger Barry, at 1:59 PM  

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