Someone get Jake McGoldrick a green fuzzy costume -- he's gone all Oscar the Grouch about people who leave their big trash and recycling bins out on the sidewalk after trash pickup day. He's proposing a $100 fine for the first time and up to $500 for repeat offenders. Hey, even Sesame Street let Oscar stay on the street all week. (Maybe Oscar's in a municipal container.)

And while you're busy rolling your heavy containers back into your house so Jake McGoldrick's aesthetic sensibilities won't be offended, make sure you're not throwing out any styrofoam containers either. Aaron Peskin is sponsoring legislation to prohibit restaurants from using those styrofoam clamshell takeout carriers, starting in 2007. But how will we get the other 3/4s of our Cheesecake Factory meal home now? Environmentalists are pleased, but the restauranteurs in Peskin's Chinatown district are miffed that he didn't at least warn them before proposing legislation that'll drive up their costs of doing business. For what it's worth, Oakland just passed a similar ban today too.

And San Jose. San Jose.... anything going on about garbage in San Jose lately?