Garbage overflows regularly at public trash cans. (Photo by Ray Johnson, two weeks before the storm.)
The storm has caused so much destruction, sending boats, trees and their limbs, signs, and houses crashing to the ground. But it’s not just the trees that got whipped in the wind. Garbage like this gets blown onto the streets by the strong winds, just as well.
Sheepshead Bay, we have a major cleanup to do. Let’s hurry and clean up our act before our streets become one big trash heap.
Capt. Mastrokostas and Council President Etienne present "Cop of the Month" awards to 4 officers
A larger audience than usual turned out to last night’s 61st Community Council meeting. Many, it seems, turned out to challenge Captain Georgios Mastrokostas from the 61st Precinct about problems on their block or with area businesses.
The most contentious part of the meeting occurred when a resident of East 19th Street and Avenue W complained to the captain about the dismissive attitude of police responding to consistent problems on her block. We’ve written before about this block being a haven for graffiti, and the resident stressed that despite numerous complaints police offers appear to have done little. She also said drugs were increasingly a problem, and that she had called police to have them pick up a bag of crack-cocaine she found in the street. She said dealers in cars often come to the poorly lit street to conduct transactions before driving off.
“The block is a hangout spot, an orgy spot, a get high spot,” she said.
There’s no shortage of complaints from our readers about the flagrant splattering of our sidewalks with dog shit. Complaints about crap on the streets are followed closely by complaints about those morons who actually make the effort to pick it up, and then chuck their non-biodegradable shopping bags full of shit under cars and elsewhere. (The tied up plastic, of course, slows the crap from decomposing, almost as if these jackasses are attempting to preserve the poop’s pestering of the public.)
Well, over at the blog Fucked in Park Slope, they’re offering up a solution to hunt-down and round-up these shmucks: a dog crap DNA database.
“I’m proposing that every dog owner have it’s dog’s DNA put in a huge database so that a sample of any unpicked-up turd will yield the offender who should then be made to lick the entire street is was found on. just saying.”
Write your councilmember now.
If anyone has information about the perpetrator of this, please call the police. We’ve heard the attack was on Avenue U. Though we all sometimes have problems with our neighbors and their dogs (and their poop), this type of reaction is plainly sociopathic. Help get him off of our streets!
From the Daily News:
A Brooklyn man was doused with acid because his dog barked at someone on the street, police said Thursday.
Igor Dubrovinsky, 29, was at Staten Island University Hospital with burns to his neck, hands and face the Wednesday confrontation. His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
Dubrovinsky was walking the dog around the corner from his Sheepshead Bay home when he passed a man wearing all black.
“The dog starting barking at him,” said a source. “I guess the guy got upset.”
He flung the acid at Dubrovinsky and fled. The dog was not harmed, police said.
No one has been arrested.
The owners of the two houses at 1809 and 1811 Voorhies Avenue told Courier-Life reporters they would prefer to subcontract the houses to the city for use as a halfway house or homeless shelter.
We wrote about the houses last week, after tenants at 1811 Voorhies sprayed graffiti reading “Welcome to Hell” and “Bed Bugs Paradise” along the front. The graffiti has since been removed.
One can only wonder what set Courier-Life on the case (hmm…), but reporters spoke to the owners, Iliya Honovich and Vladimir Parsol, who said they bought the properties back in 2006. They are approved only for single room occupancy (SRO) so they can only serve as rooming houses. The duo bought the pair of houses hoping to rezone it to build condos, but Community Board 15 rejected their attempts saying there are already too many condos in the area.
“Having an SRO is like a suicide deal. There’s always going to be some kind of problem. There’s always bums and weird people that live there,” Honovich told Courier-Life.
Now the owners are seeking to subcontract the buildings to the city for use as a shelter or other institutional housing, saying the guaranteed rent from the city would afford them better security and maintenance. To simply turn the houses into two-family homes would involve a lengthy, expensive battle through housing court.
Screw Red Hook and Real World, and screw Jersey Shore and their shore house. I think we just found our shooting location for Sheepshead Shore.
We received a number of e-mails and photos about this building at East 18th Street and Voorhies Avenue. Apparently, unhappy tenants got tired of airing their grievances to the landlord about the bed bugs, and now they’ve made it public. I’ve seen “Welcome to Hell” painted on the building several times over the years.
Does anyone know what the deal with this house is? I’ve heard it was a halfway house or some other sort of institutional housing, while others have told me it’s a boardinghouse for illegal immigrants. That’s a “For Rent” sign on the column, so that may nix the first idea, and – awful as it sounds – the grammar is a little too good to be done by ESL residents.
This has always been one of my favorite houses in Sheepshead Bay, if only for the big mystery it presents and its film noir grittiness. I mean, come on, can’t you just imagine the drama, the drugs, the sex, the murder that tiny, cold door?
Photo by Arthur Borko
… and this little guy is telling on him.
Seen in front of 2260 East 18th Street.
When a resident of East 19th Street first began complaining to us – months ago – about the graffiti here, we shrugged it off. We figured, “This is New York City, there’s always going to be graffiti. You just gotta report it and remove it, like everyone else does.”
When the resident continued to complain, saying the vandals were targeting homes, we thought it was weird and worth checking out. But we got caught up in other things and never went to take photos.
To that resident, we’re sorry. Very, very sorry. You’ve sent us these photos and shocked us. Then we went to take a walk of our own and saw even more graffiti, including on residential property. We dropped the ball on this one.
But we’re not the only ones. I’ve seen the way the the police handle your complaints at meetings. They have the same reaction we initially had. But it’s obvious that East 19th Street between Avenue X and Avenue W has a higher level of graffiti and vandalism than surrounding blocks. It could be because it’s not particularly well lit, and the United States Post Office sorting facility, the auto repair shop, and the apartment building prove to be appealing canvases.
Whatever the case, police officers ought to be making more frequent night patrols down the block and local leaders should work with the business owners to install security lights. This is preventable.
A family of stray cats are staking a claim to the garage and attached lot on the corner of Avenue Z and East 16th Street. A group with similar patterns have been seen stalking the grounds, poking through garbage for scraps, and sitting in the sun.
We caught these photos on Tuesday. They’re of two separate cats. They’re pretty handsome, but that doesn’t mean they’re exactly welcome in the neighborhood.
As for the lot – a former garage – it’s been closed for years. It’s a pretty large stretch of space, but we’ve heard whispers that the landlord wants an absurd amount of cash. On top of that, underground fuel tanks have leaked, we’re told, requiring the next owner to clean up before building.
It’s a shame. A bookstore or other business would find that spot purrrfect.
Yeah… I said it.
City cleans up fallen tree at East 19th and Gravesend Neck Rd (Courtesy of Arthur Borko)
Well, the city has finally gotten around to removing that fallen branch we reported on last week, a full two and a half weeks after it first fell. As you can see they are also trimming the rest of the tree to prevent future incidents.
It’s not quite a Christmas miracle, but it does appear to be another victory for Arthur Borko, following his reports that got a trouble-making sign near Bassett’s Deli removed, and a fallen sign at Cass Place fixed.
Meanwhile, I’m still holding my breath for a few victories of my own. Better transit service, anyone? Repairs to Plumb Beach? Cleaner streets?
I must have been naughty.
