Neighbors fume over can removal

It was only common sense: Take the public trash cans off Boston streets and remove potential hiding places for bombs during the Democratic National Convention. But what security planners and city officials didn't count on was that people would still throw garbage into the black metal frames that held the cans.

''That's kind of weird," Donald Contois said, as he crumpled up a 7-Eleven taquito wrapper and went to discard it in an overflowing frame near the corner of Mount Vernon and Charles streets yesterday afternoon. He was working a construction job around the corner and had been busy taking down scaffolding, he said, ''so it would look pretty for the convention."

Pretty it wasn't on Beacon Hill yesterday. Under blooming window boxes and faux gaslights on the hill's quaint, tony main streets, Starbucks Coffee cups and cigarette butts toppled out of the trash can frames onto narrow brick sidewalks. Over the weekend, city workers began removing public trash cans on much of Charles and Cambridge streets. By yesterday afternoon, complaints flooded the local neighborhood association, and many business owners fumed as they watched the trash pile up outside their stores.

''Now, it's a mess," lamented Alex Marder, owner of Simmons Liquors on Cambridge Street, where an overflowing trash can frame stood a few feet from a planter he had recently filled with purple and pink flowers. ''People throw out here, they throw out there, they don't care!"

Boston police ordered the city to remove trash barrels until Aug. 1 from 30 downtown streets, including some in the Back Bay, the North End, and the Theater District.

But garbage is an especially sensitive issue on Beacon Hill, one of the city's most densely populated neighborhoods. Many homes do not have back alleyways to hide refuse, and the Beacon Hill Civic Association has a special committee, the ''clean streets team," to rid the streets of unsightly trash. It's also home to US Senator John F. Kerry, a fact not lost on residents.

''It shouldn't be like this for him," Charles Street resident Torri Crowell said, motioning toward a mound of garbage that had collected around an empty frame near the corner of Revere and Charles streets. ''His neighborhood is trashed."

Public Works Commissioner Joseph F. Casazza said he was only following orders from the Boston Police Department. His workers noticed yesterday that people were continuing to throw garbage into the leftover frames, which are screwed into the sidewalks, but he said his department is at the mercy of the police.

''It was ordered that there should be no container of any kind during the convention," Casazza said. Even see-through trash bags are forbidden, he added. ''They put a taboo on everything."

After Globe inquiries, a public works official announced last night that the trash can frames would be removed on Charles, Cambridge, and Newbury streets. Casazza said he will do the best he can to have workers monitor streets where trash cans were removed.

Police Superintendent Robert Dunford, who is coordinating local security for the convention, did not return calls seeking comment.

At the Beacon Hill Civic Association, president Suzanne Besser said she was ''flabbergasted" by the mounting trash. She said no one had been notified that the trash cans would be removed, though she had been working closely with local, state, and federal officials on security issues.

''They have said they are slowly ratcheting up [security]," Besser said. ''We get used to one thing; then they ratchet up a bit. But it seems like this last week, whammo!"

The president of the Beacon Hill Business Association was also irked by the lack of notification, but Karen Fabbri is a self-professed fan of the city's ''Let's Work Around It" campaign and said she's glad that security officials are paying attention to the entire neighborhood, not just the streets around Kerry's house.

''I'm willing to let people throw away Starbucks cups here," said Fabbri, who owns Moxie, a Charles Street shoestore. ''I'd rather have a little bit of a dirty street. We've all had to make some understandable sacrifices."

But some business owners say they already bear an undue trash burden. Lauren Decatur, who owns Upstairs Downstairs Antiques on Charles Street, said many business owners have to take garbage home because there is no commercial pickup. ''Someone asked me to put a plastic bag in," she said, pointing to an overflowing trash can frame outside her store. ''I'm perfectly willing to do it if the city will remove them."

A trolley packed with tourists lumbered past on Charles Street and stopped at the corner of Mount Vernon Street. ''Kerry's house is right up the street," the driver announced. ''You can't miss it; it's the one with all the Secret Service out front."

One passenger appeared mesmerized by the ''Cash Roulette" lottery tickets and plastic Coke bottles that had tumbled through a trash can frame near the trolley.

Another visitor from Wilmington, Del., stopped short on her stroll from a Beacon Hill restaurant to Boston Common. ''Ooh," Leslie Holmes said, scrunching her face in a look of distaste. ''It's too bad they couldn't think of an alternative."

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.