The San Francisco Chronicle and other local media are reporting huge disparities between richer and poorer neighborhoods as a local garbage lockout continues through it's 11th day here.  Charges of redlining neighborhoods for pickups and service have been circulating for a few days now as it became obvious that older, poorer neighborhoods might not be getting the same level of service during the disruption.  The expected "wait in line and you'll all get handled" equally treatment you'd expect during a strike (though the Teamsters are quick to remind us this is a 'lockout' and not a strike) doesn't seem to be happening.  As reported, the generally 'poor' neighborhoods in fact do appear to be suffering from neglect more than the wealthier, tonier neighborhoods farther toward the foothills.

My office is inside our West Coast plant in an older industrial area of West Oakland immediately adjacent to an older working class residential neighborhood.  Some of the buildings here are vacant-- victims of blight and flight after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake reduced the Cypress Freeway (out my office window) to rubble and finally drove away many of the struggling factory and warehouse operations in this part of town.  What once was the well-trafficked freeway bringing hundreds of thousands of cars alongside our signage is now the beautifully landscaped "Mandela Parkway" attracting a few hundred cars an hour and a lot of folks walking their dogs.  Across the Parkway begins the residential sector, and today I observed a WasteManagement truck circulating through the residential area being followed by what appeared to be a "supervisory" vehicle.  I make no claims on understanding the garbage hauling business but it certainly appeared to me that the supervisor was dictating which properties were to receive service and which were to be bypassed entirely-- on the same block!  Was it redlining I observed or just a case of picking up at those locations where the accounts were current on their monthly bills and letting the slow pay customers endure the garbage piles, the rats, and the stench just a little longer than usual?

Chris Hendricks