More people dumping house trash in city bins

From the Daily News:

Home trash in city litter bins is really piling up — and this year, scofflaws have been largely getting off scot-free.

The number of $100 fines issued for illegal dumping of residential garbage in street bins dropped by 78% in fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30, city records show.

The number of trash tickets doled out declined to 922 from 4,185 in fiscal 2012.

The Sanitation Department said the huge drop happened because the agency’s cadre of enforcement officers were transferred to traffic duty for weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

While fewer tickets were issued, illegal trash dumping at the city’s 25,000 litter baskets is on the rise, local authorities say.

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What are the chances?

From Eyewitness News:

A woman accidentally threw away thousands of dollars meant to pay for her daughter's college tuition.

The Queens mom has her money back, thanks to some New York City sanitation workers.

Harried working mother of two Melissa Gallagher was rushing from home to her double parked car when she stopped at the garbage can on her corner to throw out a water bottle.

"And it must've just slipped off my wrist," Gallagher said.

Her little Coach wristlet pocketbook, had slipped off into the trash, but this one carried treasure!

"$4,000," Gallagher said.

She was carrying the cash to make a bank deposit to cover her daughter Clarissa's tuition, a basketball player and Junior at SUNY Old Westbury.

The corner can had been emptied along with all the others on Myrtle Avenue, so she frantically called the Department of Sanitation.

The city collects roughly 10,500 tons of refuse a day, rolling 2,230 collection trucks continuously, but DSNY welcomed her to go through the garbage of that truck on her route the next day.

A supervisor had the haul laid out at the Waste Management facility in Maspeth, and the determined mom started digging.

Several helpful sanitation workers assisted in the search, but it was Melissa herself, who spotted the designer pouch.

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Lots more garbage all over Jamaica

From Clean Up Jamaica Queens:

"The powers to be love to throw around “Vibrant & Diverse” in describing Jamaica Queens. Well here is what your “Vibrant & Diverse” gets you, in just a radius of about 4 blocks. Councilman Ruben Wills is so on the money, it is the people, the extremely low class slobs who have invaded and taken over our community to make it look like some third world sh*t hole.

This is in front of some Tax and Accounting Service. Hopefully their accounting services are better than their cleanup of their storefront right down from Citi Bank.



Speaking of Citi Bank, this sh*t hole mess is right in front of Citi Bank and a bus stop.



Right across the street from the above mess , is this wonderful sight, the typical Jamaica sighting of a mattress. Did not know that Skylight Cellular was in the bedding business. See the low class third world immigrants walk by just like they are back home.



Another typical site, the overflowing garbage can (not the Asian guy). Considering these few blocks are “disgusting dirty Little Pakistan”, this should come as no surprise.



And another overflowing Hillside Avenue garbage can, this one with the typical household garbage that comes from the many illegal apartments in Jamaica. This is in front of the Guyana Palm Court Bar/Restaurant.



Right around the corner of the Guyana Palm Court and in front of Kahn’s Tutorial in the same building is this. When I reported this, the status (# 1-1-877910771) came back as “The Department of Sanitation investigated this complaint and found no violation at the location.”



And in front of the typical low class third world sh*t hole apartments that litter Jamaica is this mess. I am not sure which mess is worse the garbage or these ugly sh*t hole third world apartments.



The usual dumping ground in front of the empty lot at 170-19 89th Ave that has been going on for several years and nothing seems to be happening to the owner.



So there you have it, from 169th Street and Hillside Ave to 171st Street ending at 170th Street and 89th Ave. In these few blocks I see several violations, but yet, the same day I was talking photos, I was the one who got a ticket for riding my bike on the sidewalk off of Archer Avenue, since there are no bike lanes and that street is a notorious dangerous one, but yet the police officers felt the need to sound their siren and ride up on the corner and issue me a ticket.

So here is your “Vibrant and Diverse” Jamaica (I guess when you cannot come up with any thing really good about the community, you go for the standard “Vibrant and Diverse” in your publicity, because “Sh*tty and Low Class” probably is not a good selling point.

But congratulations, Jamaica Queens is now officially a third world country and a really sh*tty third world country.

Am I the only one who thinks that Jamaica has a really major garbage problem and that nothing is being done about this? Or are you all okay with this damn mess everywhere?"

Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY 11432

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Over-the-top mailer fails to mention overflowing garbage

From the Daily News:

Look, up in the sky — is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s Vallone-man!

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. touts himself as a bona-fide superhero in a new campaign mailing that Queens residents received this week — complete with Vallone donning a Man of Steel-style unitard with a bright red “V” on the chest.

“Police respect him, criminals fear him,” the flyer says at the top, next to an action shot of Vallone grasping an American flag. There’s also a tribute to Vallone from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly — in a comic book font, of course.

Wow, this almost convinced me to pull the lever for the Junior! But then I received this:

"I put in a complaint about the amount of trash on Broadway on weekends and the poor removal by Sanitation. Plus, a few of those restaurant owners and landlords are slobs - treating the trees as ashtrays and dumping grounds. I will also blame careless, dirty pedestrians who seem too weak to hold onto a cup to toss in a garbage can.

Well, here is the response I got from Vallone - "basically I tried to fend off budget cuts but in the meantime here is how you can set-up a volunteer clean-up using materials from Dept of Sanitation." Not bad, but when do I have time to organize this when I am working and attending to family matters?

Maybe they should add a surcharge to developers building oversized buildings to pay for additional sanitation services for the whole community."

Chris Sahar

Thank you for writing in regard to sanitation issues and I will forward your concerns to the Department of Sanitation. Below are two links for citizens to be active in cleaning up trash in their neighborhood:

http://www.citizensnyc.org/programs/grants.html
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/downloads/pdf/contact/requests/misc_request/volcleanup.pdf

Keeping Astoria clean is a top priority, and I refuse to let the quality of life fall below acceptable standards. I am as upset as you are about the recent increase in litter, not just in Astoria, but City-wide.

These quality of life issues are a direct result of cutbacks forced on New York City by politicians in Albany. Two years ago our local sanitation district had 141 officers and because of attrition and hiring freezes, our sanitation district stands at 119 officers. Budget cuts have lowered public trash can collections from twice a day in 2008 to once a day in 2010. I recently wrote to the Commissioner of Sanitation asking for restoration of twice a day public trash can collection.

Keeping Astoria clean is a high concern of mine and I have negotiated in the City Council to get funding in the budget to have well over one hundred heavy duty trash cans placed at various locations throughout my district in heavily trafficked areas. I also allocate money in the budget each year to pay for a sweeper who cleans 31st Street from 20th Avenue to 23rd Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard from 29th Street to 33rd Street each day and have provided funding to other groups to hire sweepers. A few years ago, I successfully fought to save twice weekly garbage pickups, weekly recycling, and to rehire 200 fired sanitation workers.

Property owners are responsible for keeping their sidewalks and curbs clean and free of debris. I, along with my colleagues, passed legislation that allowed for Sanitation Agents to issue summonses to homeowners for dirty sidewalk and curb areas only during two 1-hour periods. The time slots are from 8:00 to 9:00 in the morning and again from 6:00 to 7:00 in the evening. These time slots allow for the majority of homeowners to be home to clean their sidewalks. Commercial establishments are also required to sweep in front of their stores. From 31st Street to 81st Street on Ditmars Boulevard, the routing times are 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and from 31st Street to Shore Boulevard, the times are 11:00 a.m. to 12 Noon and 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts there are dirtbags in our society who have little respect for other people’s property and just throw wrappers and other debris on the sidewalk.

I am sure that with continuous effort, our vision to maintain a cleaner, safer neighborhood will be successful, despite the cuts which Albany has forced upon the city.

Again, thank you for taking the time to express your concerns.
Very Truly Yours,

PETER F. VALLONE, JR.

All that fluff stuff that the superhero did with regard to sanitation and the neighborhood still looks like a pigsty. It's so bad there that one of the candidates running for Vallone's current seat has focused on the filth as his number one concern for the district.

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Sanitation worker dumps trash in front of restaurant

From Eyewitness News:

It doesn't get much clearer than this. A New York City sanitation worker picks up a black garbage bag, dumps it on a doorstep, and rips the bag open. When he walks away from the heap of trash, the letters "DSNY" are clearly visible on the back of his bright yellow vest.

The incident took place on the doorstep of Fast Eddies on West 47th and 10th Avenue, owned in part by Richie Winckelman. The time stamp on the surveillance video - 6:59 Saturday morning. From the angle pointed East on West 47th, you can see the large sanitation sitting in the intersection. In another shot, the worker is, in fact doing his job - dumping the trash can into the back of the truck, not onto the sidewalk.

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Get your junk off our poles

From the Queens Chronicle:

The placing of fliers, signs and posters around the city is an easy — and often free — means of advertising. Taping up signs for a missing pet or stapling a sign on a telephone pole pointing passersby in the direction of a garage sale is seemingly harmless but the line is fine.

“Forest Hills, south of Queens Boulevard has a long tradition of garage sales in the warmer weather,” Jon Torodash, a community activist and candidate for City Council, said. “These are often advertised by what are probably illegally posted but generally well-tolerated signs. Often we’ll also see fliers about missing pets.”

Recently, a series of posters advertising a day camp at Queens Gymnasia in Elmhurst were taped on trees along 69th Road in Forest Hills.

When asked to comment, an unidentified gentleman who answered the phone at the school said he did not know signs had been taped to trees in Forest Hills and that he would look into the issue and call back. He never did.

A few of the signs have since been ripped down. The distinction of what is considered a well-tolerated sign and a quality-of-life issue is, however, debatable.

According to the Department of Sanitation, “It is illegal for any person to affix any handbill, poster, notice, sign, advertisement, sticker or other printed material upon any tree by any means.”

Violators of this law face a $150 to $200 fine for first-time offenses. Second and subsequent offenses bump the fine up to a range of $300 to $550.

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Proposal to tackle the weed problem

Letter to the Editor (Queens Courier):

The issue of unkempt properties has plagued our communities since the housing bust.

The Department of Sanitation addresses properties with garbage but does not address those with unkempt grass/weeds. These properties must be addressed as well.

Often half built properties and those in foreclosure do not have garbage, but have grass/weeds that are THREE feet high. This is my proposal:

Department of Sanitation advises property owner/bank that a property is unkempt (failure to cut grass, remove weeds, trim hedges that block sidewalks etc.) and gives the owner 10 or 15 business days to comply.

If they do not comply, the Department of Finance will assess a surcharge on the next quarterly property tax bill (percentage amount to be determined). That surcharge will be used to pay for the expenses of having the property maintained on a monthly basis by private landscaper (contract given by RFP).

This surcharge can be removed once the property owner/bank can show proof that a landscaper has been hired to address future clean-ups or submits a signed affidavit with the name of the person who will maintain the property.

It is in the city’s interest to do this. The banks that have interest in these properties continue paying taxes even when the homeowners fail to pay their mortgages and the escrow for the taxes. The surcharge will be a higher tax and the city would not have to worry about how to collect for the clean-up.


Marie Adam-Ovide
District Manager
Community Board 8

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