The Simpson Stump - March 2020

It’s that time of year again, the Simpson Neighborhood Garage Sale is coming up! The official day will be March 21st this year, though we encourage you to include a second day (Friday or Sunday) just to offer people more opportunities to shop for deals. We will be placing signs at the major streets into Simpson similar to previous years, as well as at some of the intersections inside the neighborhood. We will be producing a garage sale map again this year, so if you would like to be included please e-mail us your address (and days you’ll be selling) to azstills@gmail.com BY MARCH 14th. We will have maps available at our next neighborhood meeting on March 17th as well as handing them out to all the houses that e-mail us.

Also, our community is hosting several other activities in the coming weeks. The next Movie in the Park will be on March 14th, with activities starting at 5:00 pm at Solano Park. The movie will be Frozen 2, and a neighbor has graciously arranged for Ana and Elsa to meet kids prior to the movie starting. There will also be upcoming events in both CLRC and 19North (such as a Job Fair, Sidewalk Chalk Expo / Contest and Italian Festival) coming up, so please join our neighborhood Facebook page to see the most current invites and events.

Now, everyone prepare themselves; the rest of the newsletter topics are very exciting (okay, maybe not, but they are necessary).

Following up on a topic from our January meeting, the city approved a small rate increase to support the existing trash and recycling programs after receiving public input. Summarizing the conversation we had in January, solid waste fees had been frozen for the past 10 years, supported by the city making internal changes to reduce costs, as well as money made by selling recyclables. The recyclable market has collapsed in the last year, meaning much of that income has been lost or reduced, and few internal changes remained without cutting services. City staff presented options to 50 other neighborhoods in addition to Simpson, offering four choices (from maintaining current service, to eliminating recycling entirely). The majority (58%) of public responses supported the option to maintain the existing services. We’ll see an increase of $6.40 to our monthly water bill, starting sometime in the next few months.

This year marks another national census, and you will be hearing all about it in the coming months. From our neighborhood’s, city’s, and state’s point of view, it is critical that everyone participates. The results of the census determine how much money is allocated from the national government to support budgets for roads, schools, hospitals, emergency services, and more. It also determines how many members in congress each state has. Arizona gained a seat in 2010, and likely will again in 2020 if everyone participates. Here are some of the critical dates coming up (as well as some of the process for participating):

• March - Invitation to participate in the census will be mailed out (you can reply online, by mail, or over the phone)

• April 1st - Census Day, you’ll see a lot of announcements and press around this time, but is not a deadline

• Mid to Late-April - If you haven’t responded online, by phone, or requested a survey by mail, then census questionnaires will be automatically mailed out in April.

• May - If you didn’t reply in one of the three ways above, then census takers will begin knocking on doors (several tries over the following weeks)

Bulk Trash Reminders: Bulk trash can only be place out 10 days before the posted pickup date. This means that since bulk trash was picked up a few weeks ago in February, placement does not begin again until May 9th. Any trash placed out prior to that may result in a letter from Phoenix, as we’ve been pressuring the city about illegal dumping and issues with the community trash containers around Simpson. Also, please note: Bulk Trash must be placed in the same location that your weekly trash pickup occurs. If you have a small bin for your house, then bulk trash will only be picked up from your curb (not the alley).

We finally have an update on Gated Alley Program, a topic that has been hanging around for almost two years now. The initial pilot program for the Gated Alley Program (GAP) has concluded, and has been approved by the city to move into a larger test phase. While I have limited information in this regard, we hope to have a member of Councilwoman Pastor’s office at our next neighborhood meeting to elaborate on the program, and next steps. The summary as I understand it:

• Initially tested in two neighborhoods and will now expand to approximately one dozen alleys in each council district for an expanded trial.

• Those test alleys are just now being developed based upon need and interest. If you’re interested in trying this on your alley, please attend the meeting to hear more and how to make the case for your alley.

• In order to gate the alleys and limit access, trash services will have to move to the front curb. This means no more large communal trash containers in the alley, and also that bulk trash will now be picked up out front of your property.

• Streets that already have moved their trash services will likely have an easier time getting on the gated alley trial.

• Several things need to happen to move trash services:

  • An individual or neighborhood association requests to move trash services out of the alley.

  • The City of Phoenix sends out a survey to all impacted property owners (note: owners, not tenants. It is possible for the owner to allow tenants to respond on their behalf, but that needs to be arranged beforehand).

  • For the survey to be valid, more than 50% of the property owners must respond with either a yes or no reply. If that occurs, then more than 50% of the responses must be in favor of moving services to the front for the process to move forward.

  • If the survey is valid and the response is no, then the issue is likely closed barring a major change in the future. If less than 50% of the properties respond, then another survey may be sent out in the near future.

  • Note: The city will try to ensure that at least 50% of the properties respond, and two or three weeks after the survey is sent will knock on doors seeking a response from households that have not yet responded.

  • It’s possible all services will be relocated to the front at some point in the future, it’s been discussed before as a cost savings (less miles driven / time taken), and given the topic this is likely to come back up before too long.

And along with Spring comes our next Simpson Alley Cleanup! The next one will be on March 14th. We plan on continuing our progress on the irrigation canals west of 23rd Avenue, this time focusing on the alleys North of San Miguel. We hope to finish off this effort this year, since several of those alleys are very well maintained by neighbors already (and the neighborhood cannot thank you all enough for that!)

We’ll be starting at 7:00 am, at the alley north of San Miguel. If you’d like a workout in the beautiful spring weather, please come out and help us! After this we’ll turn again towards looking at various alleys throughout Simpson that have struggles with illegal dumping / graffiti, so if you believe the alley behind your house could use some help, please let us know.

The next Simpson Neighborhood Meeting will be on March 17th, 6:30pm at First Indian Baptist Church (2205 W. Georgia Ave). The tentative topics that we hope to be covering:

• Upcoming Events

• Gated Alley Program Update and Next Steps

• Learn more about the changes at RE Simpson School

• Pick up your Garage Sale Maps!

• Sign a petition to the City to try and keep Costco at Christown!