Follow the money. I will bet anything Waste Management is a political donor to Oakland's city "leaders" who jacked up the rates. It always always always goes back to that.
“...............I will bet anything Waste Management is a political donor to Oakland’s city “leaders” who jacked up the rates.......”
No doubt in my mind.
Having friends who live there Lizavetta I’m told that it isn’t only Waste Management, a Texas company, but the second and third of three companies, all three of whom now have contracts. Waste Management sued because its competitor was a local crony, which didn’t have the trucks to pick up the containers justifying their new piece of the action. There are typically three different containers, each of which now is picked up by a different contractor, one of which needed trucks, which are, of course, natural gas powered, and which will be paid for by Oakland taxpayers, almost doubling greenhouse gases (though not the only gas that makes a difference, water vapor).
Oakland, which supports an average police salary of 213 thousand dollars, is has an example in Vallejo California, one of many California cities that declared bankruptcy. It is hurting low-income citizens and businesses most because they don’t have councilmember influence like the unions. Even the wealthy are complaining to city officers about waste costs, which are on a sliding scale, but have more than doubled the cost of waste pickup, and, like Obamacare, impose penalties on apartment and restaurant owners who could contract privately at lower costs.
New orders sent to my friends require that homeowners take their coffee grounds, bacon grease, table leftovers, kitty and dog poop, and add it to the “green” container with leaves, branches, and what used to be “clean” organic waste. Fines are threatened for those who don’t properly sort their garbage. Not long before they’ll be demonstrating their creativity by requiring all iron pipes, which they once required, replaced by plastic because of the lead joints, and taxing private security firms, growing rapidly in Oakland as the police only respond to robberies during an armed invasion.