My community is dirty enough without the added complexity of building rubble piling up outside my door. Yesterday I went downstairs to find a cabinet blocking my path. Today waiting for me was a pile of builders bags from the renovations going on next door. In the other direction, the ground floor flats are getting a new communal toilet and there is currently a curtain in place of a bathroom wall so that when you walk by, you can see the shadow of people in there (and no doubt hear them going about their business if you hung about in the cold for long enough).
The length of time and amount of rubbish in the community is testament to the tolerance of my neighbours. They step over the mess, they don’t make a fuss about the inability to get their bicycles out and their washing flutters above the piles of dirt.
Unfortunately the piles of dirt also bring other items, namely household and miscellaneous rubbish like packaging and discarded food which in turn attracts the rats and adds to the squalid scene. Rubbish attracts rubbish and rats. The community cats are not terribly successful at keeping the rats down as I am still awoken several times a week by rats behind my wall.
But I am assimilating and if my neighbours can live with rats, why not me. If my neighbours don’t mind negotiating piles of rubbish then why should it worry me. Maybe I could save myself the short walk to the community bins and just chuck the rubbish out of my window to the pavement below. Now there’s a thought – a return to Medieval Britain!