How long? (part 2)

How long does it take the city to clean up after a hurricane?

Eighteen days.

To be more precise, it took the city until today to pick up the vast piles of trees, limbs and brush that accumulated by the curb as my neighbors and I cleaned up our yards.

Using the city's web site, I reported the need for a bulk trash pickup on Aug. 30.

On Aug. 31, the I got an e-mail from the city saying my request had been taken care of.

"We are happy to report that your Trash/Bulk Pick-up request has been completed by the assigned agency. We at the City of Richmond truly appreciate your proactive approach to resolve this issue. Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future."

Yeah. Right.

I understand that the city has been busy in Irene's aftermath. But why lead me on?

The city administration's -- and the mayor's -- reputation has been tarnished by the slow response all over Richmond. For his part, the mayor has put one big plodding foot after another in his mouth as he attempted to handle the cleanup and his resulting public-relations problem. In recent days he's seemed to be running out of feet, so great has been the criticism. His only response has been to avoid giving a direct answer to any and all questions.

Dwight Jones has been mayor of Richmond since 2009. Before that, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for 14 years. He's certainly learned that the best way to dodge hard questions is by not answering them.

All politics is local.

And you can't get much more local than piles of debris in front of your house.

All things considered, it's good to have my personal heap of trash gone. I'm sure my neighbors feel the same way. I'm glad to have the extra parking space, and I'm happy not to have to maneuver around hurricane debris as I drive.

But there's one thing the mayor should keep in mind: Voters have long memories.