And so too, like clockwork, garbage-worker strikes have started busting out all over. We have a banner crop of them to report this week. Work stoppages are under way in New York and Washington; a third is looming in Seattle; and a fourth was recently averted near Chicago.

So let´s see now, how does it go again? The old brainpan´s baseball gears have gotten rusty. Oh yeah: Nine men to a side. Both teams get nine chances to score. Three outs, inning´s over. Four balls, batter take your base.

And ... how many strikes is it before you´re out?

Detroit may not appear among the above-listed cities facing trash-related work stoppages, but the description of some the Motor City´s neighborhoods in this story from the Detroit Free Press certainly does make it sound like a strike-struck place.

Budget cuts forced Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick´s administration to halt bulk trash pickups three months ago, and the result has been predictable: Vacant lots have become illegal dumps full of broken furniture, mattresses, household trash, and in one case, even a 20-foot speedboat. And not just vacant lots -- in some cases, people have been dumping their junk right into other people´s yards.

The city has started cracking down on illegal dumpers, issuing tickets and creating a new administrative hearings department to prosecute blight cases, among other strategies. But it sounds like Kilpatrick´s team has a lot of catching up to do.

And as if that wasn´t already too much to contend with, some community advocates and business owners have started grumbling that the city´s crackdown unfairly targets property owners, the elderly and the poor because they often get ticketed for trash that other people have dumped on their property.

Good luck, Mr. Mayor. You´re going to need it.

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.