SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Did you notice that there are hardly any trash cans on Shore Blvd in MB. There used to be one every few benches now there are only a couple along the whole strip.

The thing that I suspect is that the pickups are not part of the scheduled runs. I am going to check this tomorrow as Avenue U between Coney Island and East 17th Street is within tomorrow morning's pickup area.

In order words, it may be “optional” on the part of the crew.

The following is a personal opinion and should not be considered the position of Sheepshead Bites.

If they city is not gonna take responsibility and pick up the garbage then we should throw it on city property and see how fast that shit gets picked up. Since when is it fucking ok to let GARBAGE pile up on New York City streets. This is not some third world fucking country or city. I don't give a shit how broke the city is, it should be doing its fucking job. These streets represent us to every tourist that visits. A century ago people in Europe used to believe that the streets in America were paved with gold. While that was hardly true we can't possibly let anyone go home to spread the tales of garbage on the street.

It's not right, it's just not.

If I were as radical as I'd like to be, I'd put a bunch of it in a pickup truck and dump it in front of a DSNY office with a note saying it's from the residents of Sheepshead Bay. But that won't work, so it's just something people are going to have to call The Powers That Be about.

That's why the Bay is getting to be a dump again. I see garbage on the water too often now.

We can bitch about the city not doing its job all we want. And yeah, they deserve it. But at the end of the day we have to ask “Are we just going to bitch? Or are we going to fix this?” We need to think of solutions to the problem and start enacting them ourselves, regardless of the city's efforts.

How about dumping it in front of a local politicians office.

I blame Bloomie. Did anyone notice the trash is household stuff?
Do people clean in front of their homes?
Is proper disposal of paper and glass enforced?
Are dogs cleaned up after?
I can go on and on.
I personally cleaned my street for a few weeks.
When I asked a resident if I could on occasion leave a bag of street stuff
with their trash on trash day they said no.
Done with that.

We could attempt to remove the trash, but where would it go from there?

Ned, later I'm going to send you some pictures I took of Brighton Beach Avenue a few weeks ago on a Sunday. Makes your picture look respectable. I took a half dozen pictures then gave up when I realized that virtually all two dozen baskets looked that bad. It was an absolute disgrace. I went back the following morning and realized the merchants had bagged the loose garbage and some of the bags were then taken away. The baskets themselves remained three-quarters full. What's going to happen this summer? The mainstream media needs to be informed of this. Bet they would never let this happen in Times Square. Bloomberg feels we just don't matter.

The sanitation is real diligent about sweeping the curbs on Ave U. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the sanitation car ahead of the sweeper giving tickets if there's a car in the way. I kind of agree with it but why is so much effort put forth for the curb and not for the baskets?

Regarding the picture: Why are people using a corner basket for household trash when it's supposed to be used for coffee cups and gum wrappers? It's disgusting.

Where would it go from there? I can't publicly endorse Local Broker's idea, Lisanne.

They are dilligent about the curbs so they can give tickets to the cars.

I wouldn't be so sure that it's household trash just because it's bagged. It may have been overflow garbage from the baskets that the merchants bagged so it doesn't get blown around because that's what happened along Brighton Beach Avenue because I went there two days in a row. The first day it was all loose, and the next day much of it was bagged.

We do have to take it somewhere. And there is so much that we would need a pickup truck at the least to transport it.

I think dumping it in front of one of sanitation garages would be a good and potent idea. Not that I am publicly endorsing that idea either. Merely a thought.

I think it is household trash. The clue is that one does not see many garbage bags on Avenue U that appear to be household trash. And sometimes the bags are not closed, the contents are obviously not the sort of things discarded by casual passerby. I've even seen bags of discarded clothes, computer monitors, stereo equipment, you get the idea.

If one were to bag the loose garbage wouldn't it be placed in large bags? The small ones often end up all over the sidewalk.

You saw the trash so you would know better than me what it was. On Brighton Beach Avenue, they all were placed in large bags and many of them were clear plastic so I could see what was inside, and it definitely was things like Starbucks cups, etc. And the there definitely were more bags on the second day and the litter baskets were less full. It certainly looked like people took everything that was overflowing and put it in bags to make room in the baskets. After all, it would be the merchants who would be ticketed for the items that would fall near the curb, so it was in their interests to do something about it.

The merchants on Brighton Beach Avenue are probably more concerned about both community relations and enforcement than the ones on Avenue U. Maybe more so because there is appears to be more pedestrian traffic there. One day I wen to a few corner stores to ask them why they don't make complaints about the overflowing cans to sanitation, and I was told that it bother them, and besides it's their landlord's problem.

Avenue U has a large Chinese population, and perhaps it would be helpful to meet with their community leaders so that the cause might be determined with some certainty. I am convinced that it is the tenants over the stores that are responsible, and that is because they can't leave their garbage in front of the building entrances. Maybe something can be worked out between the owners, their tenants and sanitation.

yup, red bags.

The merchants along Sheepshead Bay Road should just buy and put out more trash cans. The ones available are few, far between and overflow too often. If pickups are less frequent, put out more cans and have the trucks clean them all out together

Just to set a couple of things straight, on Shore Blvd. the trash cans have to be chained because there are people stealing them. The same is true on Ocean Parkway, a can is put at several locations today and within a day or two it is stolen. As for Sanitation pick-ups of trash cans, there is a basket truch that takes care of those corner cans. This district doesn't have that service any longer, which means those cans are only picked up when a truck passes as it does it's regular residental pick-ups. Community Board 15 has written to the Commissioner and requested a regular basket truck. As for Brighton, they have a BID which should be doing most of the cleaning.

For the record, it appeared that 90% of the public receptacles on Avenue U were emptied. Where they were not the overflow was removed. 100% removal would be desirable, of course. I have noticed that even street collection is getting a little lax, I've found blocks where one side did not get collection on a Saturday.

So if we could get a BID on Avenue U that problem could be handled.

Isn't there a liaison for the Chinese community in Homecrest on CB15?

I walk there almost every weekend and there's one on Ocean Ave across from the water on the south side of the street and another one near the public school also on the south side of the street. Maybe there will be more when the beach season starts because of you go to the beach now there are no trash cans at all.

To Lisanne: (I am not able to reply below your quote)

Why do you say that the tenants can't leave their garbage in front of the building entrances? My father used to own a 6 family house including a store over 30 years ago. All the homes on the block had residential garbage cans either at the building line or at the curb. Why has that changed? None of the buildings I am talking about had any alleyways where the trash could be stored. What are the tenants and landlords supposed to do with their trash in those cases?

Trash cans are being stolen?! Is this sick or what!?

Here is another lovely pic of the Avenue near 14th. http://twitpic.com/bthbh

For the record, it appeared that 90% of the public receptacles on Avenue U were emptied. Where they were not the overflow was removed. 100% removal would be desirable, of course. I have noticed that even street collection is getting a little lax, I've found blocks where one side did not get collection on a Saturday.

So if we could get a BID on Avenue U that problem could be handled.

Isn't there a liaison for the Chinese community in Homecrest on CB15?

I walk there almost every weekend and there's one on Ocean Ave across from the water on the south side of the street and another one near the public school also on the south side of the street. Maybe there will be more when the beach season starts because of you go to the beach now there are no trash cans at all.

To Lisanne: (I am not able to reply below your quote)

Why do you say that the tenants can't leave their garbage in front of the building entrances? My father used to own a 6 family house including a store over 30 years ago. All the homes on the block had residential garbage cans either at the building line or at the curb. Why has that changed? None of the buildings I am talking about had any alleyways where the trash could be stored. What are the tenants and landlords supposed to do with their trash in those cases?

Trash cans are being stolen?! Is this sick or what!?

Here is another lovely pic of the Avenue near 14th. http://twitpic.com/bthbh

[...] Sanitation Admits Our Streets Don't Matter | Sheepshead Bay News Blog [...]

[...] July, Sanitation Department officials ended regular pickups of public trash cans, which happened as often as two or three times a day, seven days a week. Instead, trucks collected [...]

all household garbage, Come on people.