Interstate Waste Services Case Study

Many advocates and policymakers of housing for the poor believe that to achieve optimal human development of low-income households the location of the housing must be considered as well as the quality of the housing unit (Newman, 2008).

It was never considered one of the best neighborhoods but her area never experienced the levels of trash and illegal dumping that I had experienced on that particular visit. Later that year these dumping sites became a huge burden for the city and tax payers due to cleanup cost “Many local governments realize huge costs involved in continuously cleaning these sites up and are beginning to invest in prevention programs”. (Pasternak, 2001)

I come from a small rural town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. My hometown is split down the middle by a set of railroad tracks. On the north side, one can find pristine neighborhoods, newer schools, most doctors’ offices, and the only hospital in town. The south side of the town stands as a stark contrast. On the south side, you no longer find the wealthy neighborhoods but rather dilapidated and condemned homes and housing projects. One seems to find abandoned buildings on every corner, many inhabited by those that have lost their homes. Limited help is coming for those who need it, mostly through churches and volunteer programs targeting the underserved. Many doctors, dentists, and nurses are giving their time and resources to help

developed into a great center for the poor of the neighborhood, providing a home for working

“Not in my back yard” (NIMBY) has reached a point in some communities where it’s difficult to put community facilities anywhere. Some cities are responding by encouraging nursing home construction in specific residential areas based upon density bonuses. Density bonuses are granted for projects in which the developer agrees to include a certain number of affordable housing units. For every one unit of affordable housing a developer agrees to build, there’s a greater number of market rate units. Density bonuses vary from project to project.

How would people feel if their place called home was taken away from them and turned into a new apartment building, grocery store, or gas station? Gentrification has changed large sections of D.C. in recent years, from Columbia Heights to H Street and to Georgetown. Most recently, change has been trickling into the city’s poorest area, Ward 8, a district in Southeast Washington.  Gentrification is the restoration of run-down urban areas by the middle class-resulting in the displacement of low-income residents. Gentrification signals change in a neighborhood. This means the value and cost of neighborhood housing is higher. For the reason of this change, many people invest in homes, condominiums, apartments and businesses, while people from low

Charity Productions in partnership with the College of Architecture’s Texas Target Communities Program at Texas A&M University have collaborated together to develop a set of solutions in response to the pre-existing neighborhood conditions throughout Harris County in Houston, Texas. The conditions of these particular neighborhoods have created a pattern of disparities throughout Harris County to be recognized as constraints to residents in impeding their ability to become affluent members of society. Texas Target Communities and Charity Productions have taken a step further to not only provide an analysis of evidence for these disparities but to identify the assets present in these communities to formulate feasible and cost effective solutions.

Industrial Heights’s majority of buildings were in disrepair. There were multiple abandoned vehicles on the streets. Trash cans were lit on fire for a source of heat for the large homeless population. There were many stray animals that were mainly witnessed around unkempt waste and trash. The trash was not in receptacles and often laid on the ground with no system in place to contain it. Casper Park District also had some buildings in disrepair. There stray animals present with improperly managed waste on the ground. A major complaint of residents in the affordable housing is factory smoke, 21% of complaints received reflect factory smoke and 18% reflect complaints of dog barking. Nightingale Square and Acer Tech have better quality buildings with a new green/eco-friendly apartment complex erupted in Nightingale Square. There are still witnessed stray animals and poor residential waste management in the entirety of Sentinel City. I did observe waste receptacles present but they looked like they were for commercial use

Low income housing areas, especially public ones, across the country are in very bad shape and are a hotbed of crime because of their design. In Knoxville, Tennessee, where I am a Patrol Lieutenant, half of the public housing was built after World War II for returning soldiers and is in very bad shape. The designed was closed in and packed as many residents in as possible, which attracts crime and prevents emergency personnel from entering in an efficient manner. Some have been torn down because of poor conditions, but many still remain. The Knoxville Community Development Corporation would like to replace all of the older design developments, but money is the issue as in many other cities.

The Madison Area neighborhood has achieved a full circle, from being a thriving shopping center, to a feared poverty stricken sector and back to a place where people can walk down the road without fear (Samuelson, & Schrier, 2003). If you were to take a snapshot of Madison Square in 1915 you would have seen an overload of cars, shops and foot traffic. It rivaled all of the shopping districts in Grand Rapids and was a booming epicenter of business. As time moved on an increasingly poor population settled in just north of Hall and the drug trade started to flourish. By 1967 there were riots over racial violence and the streets had become unsafe; at one point it was even referred to as the “killing corner”. Severe

In my research, I found that there are 3 low-income housing apartment complexes in my area of Hendersonville, TN. They are Wessington House Apartments II, Christian Manor Apartments, and Christian manor apartments II. Wessington House Apartments has emergency maintenance, public transportation, landscaping, trash removal and pest control provided and is located near several places to shop like the streets of Indian lake and Rivergate mall. This complex is also located two blocks from Hendersonville hospital (“Wessington House Apartments Amenities”, n.d.). Wessington house Apartments is conveniently located in a safe area that I drive by often, and they seem to provide adequate care for their tenants and offer plenty of amenities.

Many of the homes in the neighborhoods in the area are dirty and in need of repair. The yards are full of garbage and items such as old

Thesis statement: The upper middle class residents of South End proudly expressed their love for diversity in the community yet romanticized being helpful by controlling and reconstructing the original residential norms. In condemning the routinely behaviors and common establishments in the neighborhood, it became evident that their true intent was to control the population.

Waste Management, Inc., incorporated in 1968, had become a leader in the industry of waste management services ranging from industrial operations to curbside collection. This company had become synonymous with many different kinds of disposal services that allowed for the company to grow and grow with a solid base over the course of twenty-eight years. Finally in 1996, the company reported total assets of almost $20 billion with net income close to $200 million. However, even with this growth and solid base, the company was feeling competitive pressures and net income was on the decline.

Beginning in the 1980s, many jurisdictions started to seek third-party alternatives to provide public service under the pressure for cost savings and the call for government efficiency. Private organizations are known for their expertise in specific fields – if leverage private sector know-how well, it can bring success to public sector – high quality public services can be delivered with lower costs. Therefore, public organizations can concentrate on solving critical tasks when they contract out the mundane work to private sector. Outsourcing waste management is one of the effective privatization solutions for public organizations given its easy-to-measure nature, and it continues to be popular among local governments. Nevertheless, the success of privatizing government services is not guaranteed. If not manage privatization well, it could result in increased costs, organization structure and culture change or legal liabilities. In addition, take advantage of privatizing public services redefines the nature of government service and governance as it creates a partnership between private and public sector. With the rapid pace of technology development and the obligation of government to spend taxpayer’s money strategically, privatizing government services has gained unstoppable momentum.