Tracking population trends can be a bit tricky, so different metrics are often used– driver’s license applications, home sales, etc. Here’s a new one: garbage collections, and it appears that Mesa’s population may be declining: [Thanks to M and L for this one!]
The city’s solid-waste manager told the City Council last week that foreclosures and abandoned homes have made a dent in trash collections.
Willie Black said that when times are good, people eat out a lot. That leads to lots of trash at commercial sites, especially restaurants.
When the economy slows, people eat at home a lot. So there’s more garbage to be picked up in residential neighborhoods.
With the economy slowing, Black said, commercial pickups are down, as expected. But so are residential pickups.
Black said he has been in the trash business 25 years, "and this is the first time I’ve seen this."
Normally, he said, 90 percent to 95 percent of homes will set out their black barrels on collection days.In some neighborhoods that is down to 75 percent, and "when you see it go down to 75 percent, you know something’s going on," Black said.
He thinks what’s going on is that people are abandoning their homes.
A Web site called realtytrac.com, which catalogs distressed properties across the country, listed 1,394 bank-owned properties in Mesa as of late last week.
Black said trash collections so far this fiscal year are 9,500 tons below projections.
Abandoned homes aren’t the only possible explanation, it may also be that renters are also moving out.
