SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

GARBAGE GAZETTE: I’m sorry, but people are dopes. I certainly don’t understand the point of these little garbage can prisons, but I also don’t understand why anyone, upon seeing one without a garbage can in it, would think it’s a fine place to put your garbage.

Maybe it’s the latest fad: a little zoo where we can stand outside the garbage beast’s cage and point and gawk and take photos (I did) and then move on to the three-toed sloth’s cage or something. I don’t know.

Let’s make some new rules, folks.

1. One, don’t throw your trash on the ground.
2. Two, if a garbage can is already full, don’t throw your trash in it. No, that little cellophane wrapper that has negative weight is not somehow going to stay delicately balanced on the can until the Sanitation Department comes to empty it, so stop trying and put it in your pocket.
3. Just because there is a garbage can prison (sans can), an empty newspaper bin, an unguarded decorative planter, or similar vessel on a sidewalk, it does not mean you have free license to toss trash in it. If you do, you’re just a freakin’ animal and deserve to be put in your own little garbage can prison zoo.

A staffer for Councilman Lew Fidler sent us the following note yesterday.

Today, Council Member Lew Fidler was informed that vandal(s) broke into the portable trailers, which have been used as a comfort station in Marine Park (near Fillmore Avenue), and caused damage.

The Parks Department is aware of the problem and Council Member Fidler has asked Parks to work as quickly as possible to make the necessary repairs. However, there will be no restroom facilities at this location for the next few days.

In the meantime, park goers can feel free to utilize the restroom facilities located at the Marine Park Environmental Center on Avenue U.

In lieu (Lew? [or, for a certain reporter who can't spell, Lou]) of a photo, please see the accompanying illustration.

UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): Turns out ninjas had nothing to do with it. This just in from Councilman Fidler’s office:

Councilman Fidler received an update today that the damage to the temporary comfort station in Marine Park was not the work of humans, as originally believed, but of animals. Further inspection today revealed that insulation was torn off and the heating element, used to prevent the pipes from freezing, was damaged. Without proper heat, the pipes to the station froze. Crews are working to repair the heating system and defrost the pipes. The current cold weather makes repairs more difficult but we have been told that a Parks Dept. crew is working to restore service.

I have long said we need to get the animals out of the parks. We look forward to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal banning wildlife from using Parks Department land. All squirrels found in violation will receive a fine for 125 acorns, though observers already believe there will be lax enforcement due to a shortage of Parks Enforcement agents.

Source: tmcNYC/Flickr

From the Department of Sanitation:

The NYC Department of Sanitation will be conducting special collections for mulching and recycling of Christmas trees.

Collections will take place beginning on Wednesday, January 2 through Saturday, January 19, 2013.

Residents are encouraged to put out their discarded trees at curbside as early as possible during the collection period.

DSNY asks residents to remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before placing them out for collection. DO NOT place trees in plastic bags. Trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.

New Yorkers can also participate in NYC Parks & Recreation Mulchfest by bringing their holiday trees to designated sites throughout the five boroughs on Saturday or Sunday, January 12 & 13, 2013, from 10 am to 2 pm.

All of the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover to nourish plantings across the City. Before dropping off your tree, please remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees.

Free mulch will be available at Mulchfest locations —bring a bag if you would like to take home some mulch.

A high-powered spotlight used to illuminate Coney Island Hospital’s (2601 Ocean Parkway) construction work appears to be irking neighbors, and possibly blinding drivers.

Here’s what tipster Ed L. wrote to us:

There is a lack of concern for the neighbors and community as well as the safety of cars that come around the corner of Shore Parkway and East 6th St.  The construction crew aim the lights in the direction of Shore Pkwy and East 6th St blinding drivers as they turn the corner as well as blinding the community. I have asked for the lights to be aimed at the hospital not into the windows and streets of the community. They just don’t care.

Well, we doubt the folks there don’t care. The hospital shuttered during Sandy, and has only partially reopened as they make repairs. With thousands in the community depending on them as a 911 intake facility and provider of other critical health services, we know the team is  laboring to bring the community hospital back on line as soon as possible. But that’s no excuse for making a dangerous situation for drivers and neighbors.

Sheepshead Bites has contacted the hospital’s administration and is awaiting a response.

I know, I know. We harp enough about garbage problems in Sheepshead Bay. But I just took a walk down Sheepshead Bay Road, and what I saw was particularly galling.

Just about every public garbage can on Sheepshead Bay Road looks like the one above, or worse. Containers and bags sit around them, and some even have planks of wood or sheets of metal and plastic near them.

As Hurricane Sandy passes through, the area is expected to see gale force winds, meaning all of these objects may get launched like a rocket into the air, potentially injuring anyone unlucky enough to be in their way, or posing a threat to glass storefronts and parked cars.

Meanwhile, the city is emphatically reminding us to tie down objects in our yards.

Anyone else see a problem here?

October 1 kicked off “heat season,” during which landlords are required to provide heat and hot water to tenants or face costly violations from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

The regulations require that landlords maintain a minimum indoor temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. when outdoor temperatures fall below 55 degrees. Between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., building owners must maintain an indoor temperature of 55 degrees when the outside temperature falls below 40 degrees. Hot water is required to be maintained at 120 degrees year-round.

The season lasts until May 31, 2013.

During the 2011/2012 heat season, residents of Community Board 15, which includes all of Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach, as well as parts of Marine Park, Gravesend and Midwood, racked up 2,766 complaints, falling a good bit short of Brooklyn’s most frequent complainers – residents of Community Board 17 (East Flatbush, Remsen Village), who made 3,708 complaints. It does put us well ahead of our neighbors in Brighton Beach and Coney Island, though, where Community Board 13 tallied up just 1,540 complaints.

If residents think their landlord is failing to meet the requirements, they should first contact the building owner or superintendent. If heat isn’t restored, HPD says to call 311, who will follow up with the owner and the complainant. If problems continue, they’ll send an inspector, and possibly issue a violation for as much as $1000 per day, in addition to civil penalties. They may also sue the landlord, or bring city contractors to make repairs to the property and bill the property owner.

More information about penalties and fees can be found here.

In lieu of photos of the neighborhood’s loudest dogs, we bring you Biggie the Harlequin Great Dane, the neighborhood’s dreamiest dog. Photo courtesy of Albert Dashevky.

There is a dog that lives across the street from my apartment building. I can’t see this dog, and I have no idea what it looks like, and despite this, the dog and I have a very intimate relationship. Every time a truck rumbles by, or a police siren wails, or thunder crashes, this invisible dog barks incessantly for the next 45 minutes. In the back of mind I always wondered if this was the worst dog in existence, but now I know that he is not.

The honor for loudest dogs in the city belongs to two dogs living in Marine Park. The 9-year-old German Shepard Maxwell, and his next door neighbor Buddy, a five year old Beauceron, have racked up close to 20 complaints in recent years. The owners of the dogs have both received warning letters from the Department of Environmental Protection.

“I think its ridiculous,” barked Maxwell’s owner Joseph Butrico, to DNAInfo. “They have tickets for everything. They just make it up as they go along.”

“When someone invades their space, they are gonna bark,” said Buddy’s owner Ann Winters, equally strident in defense of her noisy pooch.

In case you are wondering if Maxwell and Buddy were both the source of each other’s maniacal barking, being that they share a fence, it couldn’t be further from the truth, according to Ann.

“[They] see each other through a part of the fence, and they kiss each other,” she said.

Obviously these two dogs have formed a mutual friendship based on driving their neighbors crazy.

GARBAGE GAZETTE: In our last edition of Garbage Gazette: Garbage Theory, we deemed the corner “officially a mess” after Sanitation workers failed to empty it on their Tuesday route, and garbage piled up to the point of mini-avalanches.

Friday morning the can was emptied, and again this morning.

On Friday, however, the can was emptied but remnants of the trash pile remained, with litter and debris swirling around the can, and bottles still clogging the sewer drain. Over the weekend, the can neared being full again, and some had placed tied up shopping bags around it. When workers came today, it looks like they must have also brought their brooms, and properly cleaned the corner.

Good on them.

Perhaps our Garbage Theory series will not only tell us whether or not adding a trash can to a corner makes it more messy, but also how often a can needs to be emptied in order to prevent a mess.

GARBAGE GAZETTE: With the trash bin long past full, people have started delicately balancing coffee cups and other wonderful decorations in nooks in the trash heap. But they haven’t stayed there long, as it looks like there’s been a few mini avalanches. The worst part is the area between the can and the light pole, which I didn’t capture very well in this photo.

It’s also pouring out more towards the street, and more litter is filling the sewer drain:

We say it again: before last week, when there was no can at this Avenue Z and East 14th Street corner, there was no garbage problem. Now we’ve got a can, and we’ve got a garbage problem.

Following our update yesterday, a few readers asked if we were suggesting that all trash cans be removed, or if more pickups are needed, or if just this can needs to be removed, or this or that or the other. The answer is, we don’t know. There was a theory that garbage cans lead to more garbage, not less, and so cans should be removed. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

But one thing’s for sure: this is officially a mess.

The same can on Monday.

GARBAGE GAZETTE: As we promised yesterday, we’re keeping an eye on a newly-placed public trash bin that reappeared after more than two years at Avenue Z and East 14th Street.

This can was last emptied Friday morning as Sanitation trucks did residential pickups on East 14th Street. Public trash bins on commercial corridors not only get their own pickup days, but, to make up for a slash in scheduled pickups, are also supposed to be emptied as trucks pass them on their residential routes.

Our test case was not picked up yesterday morning, as it should have been. And the trash problem around it – previously a relatively clean corner – is now beginning to suffer from the overflow. Not only is the garbage around the can, but papers and bags have blown in the wind and cover the sidewalk behind where the photo was taken. Some trash has also gone down the sewer grate, while other bits are poised to clog the drain.

So, five days into our study (yes, we only posted it yesterday, but we’ve been watching it since it was emptied on Friday), and the presence of a public litter basket is already making the corner filthier.