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September 3, 2009

Dumping on Vanderbilt Avenue

vanderbilt_090309.jpg
The Local brings us the bizarre story of the vacant building at 384 Vanderbilt: yesterday afternoon, a swath of garbage and debris lined the avenue between Gates and Greene, where construction workers had been cleaning out the building. It turns out that the waste, which caused damage to at least one of the cars lining the street, was the result of a $900 dispute between the workers and a contractor hired to remove the waste. But the refuse lining the street wasn't the only stinky aspect of the work at 384 Vanderbilt: one resident and one employee of the neighboring Brooklyn Veterinary Hospital pointed out that the people behind 384 Vanderbilt have been running renting fraud schemes and are currently developing 384 in violation of landmark regulations. Luz Santiago, the Brooklyn Vet employee, said: “There was a hustle there. That’s a ten-dollar job on a three-million-dollar brownstone. Even if you hustle, you gotta do things proper.” GMAP
The Day: Dumped [The Local, NYT]
Photo by Matt Lieber/The Local




Posted by jscheff at 10:29 AM | Comments (26)
Categories: Brownstones, Streets

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Comments


This is really outrageous. This is the kind of stuff that happened more frequently in the 1970s.

Posted by: East New York at September 3, 2009 10:36 AM

So they just dumped that crap in the street to get back at the contractor? I'd think a better way to directly affect the contractor and not the nearby residents would be to *leave* the crap in the house, ie refusing to clear out the home and leaving the contractor to do it himself? That's just dumb sh!t right there.

Posted by: InsertSnappyNameHere at September 3, 2009 10:39 AM

Between this story and yesterday's mugging thread, I am starting to feel that we are going back to the bad old days of NYC

Posted by: benson at September 3, 2009 10:49 AM

I hope both the contractor and the hauler are jailed and made to clean up AND pay huge fines.

Posted by: bxgrl at September 3, 2009 10:53 AM

This is what Fort Greene looked like Circa 1990. If I lived on that block I would knock somebody out!

Posted by: bitter_bubble_buyer at September 3, 2009 11:01 AM

Jailed?! For garbarge?

Definitely fined, responsible for damages, etc. But I don't think jail. I sometimes get lazy and don't rinse out glass jars and throw them away instead of recycling... I hope bxgrl doesn't send me to jail. I already feel guilty about my laziness.

But honestly... these contractors are probably just slightly older versions of EVERYONE that just throws their garbage on the sidewalk as their walking, or throws out their window while driving.

Posted by: tybur6 at September 3, 2009 11:02 AM

One garbage dump from a fight does not the 90's make. I lean towards the theory that we have made it so easy for developers to get away with anything in NYC and this is one result.

Posted by: bxgrl at September 3, 2009 11:03 AM

their = they're (sorry about that gaffe)

Posted by: tybur6 at September 3, 2009 11:07 AM

Thanks bxgrl, I agree with you.

Posted by: Schultz at September 3, 2009 11:24 AM

I saw this last night as I was riding my bike down Vanderbilt at like 8:30PM. It was causing a traffic nightmare. And this picture looks like it was taken at least mid-afternoon. You mean to tell me this crap sat around for several hours on a busy street like Vanderbilt for that long?! Crazy.

Posted by: kjp216 at September 3, 2009 11:29 AM

tyburg- off you go- 60 days. This isn't just garbage- its a whole dumpster full of it thrown in the street. Contractor garbage contains a lot of nasty stuff- like broken, splintery wood, sharp metal, etc. They damaged cars and who do you think will pay for the clean-up by sanitation? You guessed it- us. This is far beyond throwing your trash on the sidewalk.

Posted by: bxgrl at September 3, 2009 11:29 AM

Snappy, based on the articles is sounds like the contractor who was removing the stuff from the house owed the rubbish removal guys money, so instead of hauling the garbage away, they justed dumped it out. We all know how the "waste management" industry can be.

Posted by: Jail_Bait at September 3, 2009 11:36 AM

Damn, that's the best dump job I've seen in a long time!

Posted by: denton at September 3, 2009 11:36 AM

They had the street blocked off last night with cop cars on the Gates Ave side, I assume because they were cleaning it up? The garbage was there by 2PM, because that's when we got back from Trader Joe's... so they were still cleaning it up that late?

I gotta ask Luz, this is the first I have heard the story!

Posted by: Heather at September 3, 2009 11:38 AM

Luz is cute.

Posted by: Kensingtonian at September 3, 2009 11:48 AM

Tyburg - I hope you aren't saying you throw trash on the sidewalk or out your car window. Because no one I know does that. Obviously enough do it such that the rest of us have to sweep up after them (I regularly patrol my block and fill a garbage can a week with refuse). But I would hope that anyone who can spare time to read a blog can be bothered to walk the half block to a public trash can (at least NYC has them unlike so many other cities).

Posted by: Putnamdenizen at September 3, 2009 12:38 PM

No, Putnam, I don't litter... and the folks that do litter (I'd estimate about 83% of this fine city's population) drive me effing nuts.

AND I've provided some harsh words to several of these litterbugs... err... as long as they've been a girl under the age of, say, 14 and don't look like they'd hurt me.

Posted by: tybur6 at September 3, 2009 1:27 PM


I'd disagree that 83% of the city's population litters.

I'd say at most 10% litter.

Posted by: IronBalls at September 3, 2009 1:44 PM

Yes, she is, Kens, but that isn't her in the picture, lol.

Posted by: Heather at September 3, 2009 2:11 PM

I agree it is a small minority of people who litter.

Posted by: Kris at September 3, 2009 2:36 PM

Small minority of people that litter? Where do you live?!

Oh, sorry... Happy Land Brooklyn.

Posted by: tybur6 at September 3, 2009 3:35 PM

errr, bitter bubble buyer, Fort Greene never looked like that before gentrification.
When people like you came, thats when problems started, especially the real-estate problems.

Posted by: The Who at September 3, 2009 3:52 PM

Heather, article says it is ;o(. Who ever the girl from the vet hospital on the pictures is, she is cute.

"Across the street Luz Santiago, dressed in purple scrubs outside the veterinary hospital where she works with Ms. Berger, waved a cigarette in the air and summed up the incident this way"

Posted by: Kensingtonian at September 3, 2009 4:55 PM

As my father used to say about the carting industry: satisfaction guaranteed or double your garbage back.

Posted by: Brooklyn Chicken at September 3, 2009 6:07 PM

sometimes people litter on the streets because there isn't a city garbage can in some neighborhoods. walk around none downtown areas you won't see a city garbage can any where to be found. people don't like to mess with other peoples garbage cans.

Posted by: armchairwarrior at September 3, 2009 8:32 PM

That's right. In fact, people feel so strongly about not messing with other's people's garbage cans that they just throw their garbage all over our yard.

Posted by: mopar at September 3, 2009 11:10 PM

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