Garbage Day, not!
By Hans Wilder | The Watertown Post
The front door to Watertown City Hall is locked up tighter than a drum — and that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
Because in this city, nothing’s open. Not the doors. Not the lines of communication. And definitely not the ears of anyone in power. It’s all locked up, shut down, sealed off like grandma’s plastic-covered couch.
I went down to City Hall today to follow up on 420 Prospect Street — you know, The House That Sanity Forgot. The one with the garbage that sat outside so long, raccoons started paying rent. The one where the grass hasn’t been mowed since before the snow fell — which was sometime in the Paleozoic Era, apparently. When I asked the property owner yesterday when he might, oh I don’t know, mow the lawn, he looked at me like I was explaining quantum physics in Hungarian. Not a single word registered.
Back to City Hall — the building that literally won’t let you in the front door without playing “Guess the Secret Side Entrance.” The main entrance is locked like we’re all in some Cold War spy thriller. And when you do finally find your way into the right hallway (after three detours and a game of bureaucratic Marco Polo), you’ll meet the Code Office — and its wonderful slamming door. Every time someone exits that office, the door slams so hard you’d think a fistfight just broke out. BAM. Everyone in the building jumps. It’s less “Welcome to your city government” and more “You want a piece of me?!”
How about we fix that?
And while we’re fixing doors, how about we also fix city leadership’s idea of accountability? See, while Prospect Street residents are living next to a post-apocalyptic dump, our city manager is driving off to his cushy home outside of Watertown every evening. Must be nice. But hey — next time you’re cruising out to the countryside, sir, maybe detour through the disaster zone on Prospect and take a whiff. Maybe wave to the kids who live next to the 3-foot-tall grass and heaps of trash. Maybe think, just for a second, about what leadership actually looks like.
Because here’s the deal: Locked front doors aren’t just an inconvenience — they’re a symbol. A symbol of a city government that has sealed itself off from the people it claims to serve. The lawn at 420 Prospect is a jungle. The trash is a science experiment. The city’s response? Crickets. And when you do try to engage? You get a slamming door hitting your ass on the way out!
It’s time to unlock City Hall — literally and figuratively.
Open the doors. Mow the lawns. Speak English (or find someone who can translate). And slam the door on excuses instead of the public.
– Hans Wilder, The Watertown Post
Because someone’s gotta say it.
About the Author
