Bay Ridge Combats Trashiness
A few street corners in Bay Ridge where residents complained about the accumulation of household garbage are now notable for their lack of trash baskets, according to an article in the Times. At the urging of the Community Board, the Sanitation Department removed 14 trash baskets on 4th Avenue between Ovington and 68th Street about…
A few street corners in Bay Ridge where residents complained about the accumulation of household garbage are now notable for their lack of trash baskets, according to an article in the Times. At the urging of the Community Board, the Sanitation Department removed 14 trash baskets on 4th Avenue between Ovington and 68th Street about a month ago because “community leaders were tired of households using corner trash baskets meant for candy wrappers and soda cans to dump plastic bags full of smelly leftovers and other personal discards.” Is the “counterintuitive” experiment working? The jury’s out. A couple business owners near the basket-less corners say there’s more street litter, though others say it’s made the area cleaner. “People are just starting to look more because there’s no litter baskets,” says Gregory Ahl, the environment committee chairman of Community Board 10, who came up with the idea of removing the waste receptacles. The Sanitation Department is going to decide whether to reinstall the baskets next week.
Fighting Litter in Bay Ridge by Getting Rid of the Litter Baskets [NY Times]
i thought bay ridge was filled with oldtimer “real” new yorkers. why are they so filthy and inconsiderate?
You people are crazy…(and I mean that in the nicest possible way)
Here is the actual problem. There are several corner apartment buildings with NO indoor storage areas for trash (both ground floor and basements are occupied by commercial businesses, and common areas indoors do not have sufficient ares for trash cans). Historically this was not a problem as trash was picked up four times a week (every other day).
At some point, DOS determined that the neighborhood was so clean they did not need to pick up trash every other day and reduced trash pickups to two days a week. People living in those buildings then needed to store their personal trash in their apartments for as many as 3-4 days. In some cases (holidays and snow days) trash pickup may only occur once in a week. As a result, tenants started taking their trash out to the corner garbage cans which were picked up every day.
It is illegal in NYC to keep trash cans on sidewalks. So the building owners can’t put trash cans outside of the buiding for their tenants. This isn’t about behavior modification so much as it is a change in public policy which has had an unexpected impact. I wouldn’t want to sit in an apartment with three or four day old trash, so I don’t exactly blame these tenants, and pulling garbage cans off corners doesn’t solve the problem, it only puts a band-aid in it.
If you want to structure this as a way to behaviour mod, typburg and dibs are correct it won’t work in our uncaring and entitled society.
But I did notice when I was in London last month that public trash cans were few and there was very little trash around.
Speaking of Bay Ridge….
Bay Ridge historical tour [meet at 69th Street near Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge, (718) 745-6827], June 4 from 10 am–1:30 pm. Free. RSVP to communitybd10@nyc.rr.com.
By Butterfly on June 3, 2011 10:00 AM
i live right next to a bank that has a drive-thru, sometimes i cut thru the drive thru, and it’s mind boggling how people just throw their mcdonalds wrappers (there’s a drive thru mcdonalds right down the street) and trash right out the window without even blinking an eye!!!
*rob*
This is the left end of the bell curve of society.
i live right next to a bank that has a drive-thru, sometimes i cut thru the drive thru, and it’s mind boggling how people just throw their mcdonalds wrappers (there’s a drive thru mcdonalds right down the street) and trash right out the window without even blinking an eye!!!
*rob*
I’m in agreement with tybur6 on both the assessment of the situation and the selection of remedies.
doesnt everyone throw out their shady garbage in a trash can blocks away from where they live? in some buildings the supers go thru ALL the garbage to make sure there’s no recycling in there..
*rob*
This “experiment” is FUCKING ABSURD.
Sanitation should be collecting the household garbage. Opening up the bags and extracting the addresses of the mail, etc. The tenants and buildings should be fined. And they should also be fined for not recycling — if they can’t provide (or use) proper garbage cans, they’re probably not recycling either. This is how it works in other cities. But, yes, I know. NYC is special.
Stop trying to “engineer” a solution and cause some pain to these scummy people. Fine them.
Same with the litter bugs. Sanitation department should station snipers with BB guns outside bodegas. And when teenagers (and they’re lovely parents) shed wrappers as they walk out the store… they should get a BB in their thigh. Some proper behavioral conditioning.