Prospect Park Holiday Litter
It’s truly amazing how the South Slope Latino community is so ready to hijack the SW corner of the park every holiday weekend for their enormous bar-b-ques. Even more fascinating though is the amount of plastic crap they leave thrown about for the rest of us to find the next morning.
It’s truly amazing how the South Slope Latino community is so ready to hijack the SW corner of the park every holiday weekend for their enormous bar-b-ques. Even more fascinating though is the amount of plastic crap they leave thrown about for the rest of us to find the next morning.
It is necessary because that is what they are doing and that is who is doing it. People can either act responsibly or face the embaressment when they are called out on it. Dont beleive me? Walk from Bartell Pritchard to the Bandshell any weekend. Try Labor Day. Chances are you’ll have to dodge kids out of control, steep over broken beer bottles, keep your dog from eating chicken bones, etc.
Now, if you can force yourself to be honest, look at who it is. Germans? French? Chinese? Blacks? Whites? No. It’s Latinos 95% of the way. And if YOU Putam dont see that, then not only can I not help you, but you need to see an eye doctor.
So what am I saying? Are all latinos irresponsible? No. But are the irresponsible people in this are of the park Latino? Yes. -BIG- Difference.
Again, there is nothing wrong with their fiesta culture in principal, and I certainly welcome and support the diversity of South Slope. But when we talk about ‘tolerance’ I dont think that gives a free ride for one group of people to piss where everyone else lives.
But why is it important to you to say “Latino” and to say they are “hijacking” a corner? If you don’t get why that is unnecessary/inflammatory then there is no helping you…
sloper, I give u mad credit for standing your ground, lol… For sure, it’s not Park Slope brownstone owners doing this.
When walking w Mrs. D and the dumb dog this morning, I took a shot of some garbage with a nice chair and built in awning. Mrs. D almost wanted to take it home. This of course would be an example of some folx who gathered up their garbage and attempted to place it for collection, not the pigs who just left their sh*t lying around.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/126261696
The other thing I saw that was funny was a white guy on a bike… he was riding around with a bag. At first, I thought he was picking up some of the stuff lying around, but in fact what he was really doing was scouring the various pigsties for any leftover valuables that might have happened in the night.
Uh, what I’ve said about it being the Latino community is entirely accurate and not the least bit racist. And yes Snappy, as I walked the Southwest corner of the park yesterday the makeup of the barbequeing that I saw was entirely Latino with the exception of two black families. And looking around the black families tents, I didnt see one plastic bag or cup on the ground, if only coincidently. So yes, I can say quite categoricly that at least for yesterday, the area around Bartel Pritchard was almost entirely latino families. And yes this morning the whole area was covered with plastic cups, bottles, bags, broken bbq pits, a baby carriage (wtf) charcoals, etc. etc. So unless all of that was put there in the middle of the night, then yes I am afraid it was the Latino’s who are guilty.
If it was white yuppie culture to take over the park for picnics every holiday, maybe we could make a statement that whites litter too, but as it stands there is no effective control group to say so.
Again, god love the latinos and the value they put on family to get out and always spend the weekend together. But how incredibly sad that they have to ruin the park experience for everyone else…why is it so hard to pick up?
Obviously careless littering is a problem, but it takes a pretty tone-deaf poster (and approver) to allow it to become a racial thing. I spend a fair amount of time picking up my block of random litter. I also had some words with three guys in a truck who calmly dumped their lunch litter out of their cab. They drove off, stopped and then one got out. I was sure he was coming back to punch me out, but low and behold he picked up the litter and put it in a trash can.
WOW! – that video is appalling – I didn’t know the park was that bad after a holiday
am sorry to say it – but you can tell by that video that the folks having their BBQ’s in the park sure didn’t try to bring their garbage anywhere near a receptacle at all – I mean the place looks like a warzone!
UGH! – have some pride and consideration for others – that’s the problem here – the lack of consideration for others
“There are tons of trash baskets around and if there were more the slobs would fill them all”
Then there AREN’T enough. Sanitation’s PR person likes to refer to people “abusing” litter baskets, but IMO that’s just a weak rationalization for their not doing a descent job.
That’s not to say there aren’t assholes who just dump their trash without even attempting to put it in a receptacle, but the solution for that would be more enforcement and hefty fines (which might raise enough revenue to hire staff to empty those poor “abused” litter baskets).
Agreed, the problem is the shockingly large number of grown adults who leave trash where they sit or toss it as they walk. More trash cans won’t help those people. On the sidewalk right in front of our house I find all the time garbage that’s been tossed as people clean out their cars and we are near the corner so there’s a trash can right there. Literally 10 seconds to walk to it. For those claiming everybody does it, come on, we can all see who is doing it. Leaders in certain communities should be promoting more pride in one’s neighborhood and respect for the environment. Litter is not just an inconvenience, it’s harmful to animals, plants and trees. They had to put signs on our side of the park telling people not to dump their charcoal on the tree bases because it will kill them. And of course you still see it done.
There are not enough dumpsters (the little cans are pretty useless for summer weekends), but even if there were enough dumpsters are are tons of people who will not use them. We walked around the lake yesterday and saw at least 10 groups actively throwing their food and other waste (dishes, wrappers) on the ground.
The Brooklyn Paper linked to a decent video taken this morning of the aftermath. Worth watching for those of you who don’t get to spend time in the park everyday and know how spread out and abundant the trash is after a holiday weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5meEtWpZdds