John Tory announces a plan to make life slightly more frustrating for raccoons
This morning, our mercifully boring mayor John Tory came as close as he will probably ever come to picking a fight with a specific group of Torontonians—albeit one that is universally vilified and completely nonvoting. During a press conference at city hall, Tory unveiled the city’s next-generation green bin, a larger and more tamper-proof version of the compost containers we’ve been using since 2002. To coincide with the big announcement, the city released a video of a couple racoons pathetically pawing at the superbin’s plastic exterior in a vain attempt to get at the sweet garbage inside. “We are ready, we are armed and we are motivated to show that we cannot be defeated by these critters,” Tory told reporters. “We have left no stone unturned in our fight against the Raccoon Nation.” Raccoons have yet to respond to the mayor’s fighting words, presumably because their mouths are full of rotting leftovers.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/john-tory-announces-plan-make-life-slightly-frustrating-raccoons/&title=John Tory announces a plan to make life slightly more frustrating for raccoons&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/yawn-tory.jpg&description=This morning, our mercifully boring mayor John Tory came as close as he will probably ever come to picking a fight with a specific group of Torontonians—albeit one that is universally vilified and completely nonvoting. During a press conference at city hall, Tory unveiled the city's next-generation green bin, a larger and more tamper-proof version of the compost containers we've been using since 2002. To coincide with the big announcement, the city released a video of a couple racoons pathetically pawing at the superbin's plastic exterior in a vain attempt to get at the sweet garbage inside. "We are ready, we are armed and we are motivated to show that we cannot be defeated by these critters," Tory told reporters. "We have left no stone unturned in our fight against the Raccoon Nation." Raccoons have yet to respond to the mayor's fighting words, presumably because their mouths are full of rotting leftovers.){kind=link}
While I’m hopeful, I still have worries.
1. They say the extra height will make a difference, but in this video, they’ve put the bin in the middle of an open space. Most homeowners keep their bin beside the house, against a wall, porch, etc… where the raccoons have figured out how to parkour their way up, regardless of height.
2. The latch mechanism seems to be a type of rotating wheel. And while raccoons don’t have opposable thumbs, they do have claws ans very sharp minds. Keep in mind our current green bins were proclaimed as “raccoon proof” when they were launched.
Lets try this, bring in the heavy artillery.
Seriously?!!!! This is his priority? (WTF) . And how much time, energy and money (ours– AND we will probably have to pay more for our waste bill to recoup the costs) gets wasted in this latest attempt. Is it REALLY a problem to clean up a spilled waste bin?????
How about bringing City Hall into the 21st (or even 20th century) in how City Hall operates? I am talking about the mind numbing small town bs that you have to do to get anything done here. The poor planning, property inspection, “bend over” for developers that continues here. The waste of time and resources that occurs because of nut jobs making complaints. I feel sorry for the City Staff hamstrung by antiquated rules…