ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The pile of debris sat at the end of the alley behind Ben Thomas’ rental. Torn mattresses. Stacks of vinyl house siding. Disintegrating cardboard. And too many trash bags to count. The pile has been there, in some form, since he moved in eight and a half years ago.
Thomas tries to keep it tidy by his unit. But the alleyway trash just keeps coming back.
“The city will come to clean it up,” said Thomas, 71, gesturing to the pile. “It’ll be clean for one to two weeks or a month, but after that, it’ll look just like that.”
