How to resolve illegal dumping
Hi brownstoners, Need some suggestions on dealing with a rather pesky problem. Our new home is under renovation and we are not living in it just yet. We came by last night to do some work to find that someone had illegally dumped a bunch of construction debris and furniture in our front yard area…
Hi brownstoners,
Need some suggestions on dealing with a rather pesky problem.
Our new home is under renovation and we are not living in it just yet. We came by last night to do some work to find that someone had illegally dumped a bunch of construction debris and furniture in our front yard area – about 15 bags worth of sh*t. I called 311 to file a complaint and I was told that because it was dumped on private property, the sanitation department would come out, take a look and more than likely issue US a violation – bastards. We got lucky because the garbage truck was coming by and the guys said that as long as we helped him remove things, they would take it all.
My question is, does anyone have any suggestions as to either getting this to stop or getting the sanitation department to deal with this since it’s not even our crap?
This is a 2-fold problem. One, there’s a large population in NYC (tenants etc) who aren’t directly responsible for trash removal and therefore assume it magically disappears, so they don’t think twice about how tossing their trash into your space has real costs. Two, there are the people who ARE acutely aware of how much it costs to properly remove trash in NYC and therefore try to sneak their debris into your space to get it removed for free (to them).
This is an endemic problem in Brooklyn. Our condo has problems with a neighbor putting their crap on the sidewalk in front of our building and mixing recycling with trash. Even though that person’s name and address is clearly marked on some of the crap, it’s our super who has to deal with the super. We complained to said tenant’s landlord and the problem ceased – tenant is market rate and was threatened with immediate eviction for the violation.
Got it – I just ordered bear repellant which is pepper spray with long range capabilities. Hoping they show up next week.
Thinking about buying a paint gun and chasing them off that way since I’ll be home all of next week. Crazy???
If you haven’t already done so, introduce yourself to your immediate neighbors and ask them to watch out on your behalf. Give them a disposable camera and ask if they would mind taking photos. Take baked goods.
In that case, in addition to lights, maybe a yard-sized covered and locked container in that front yard.
That doesn’t mean they won’t dump on the sidewalk… I had a problem with sidewalk dumping at a building I used to own on Ryerson St. I’d get one sanitation ticket after another for all this crap the next door neighbors threw out.
Lying in wait may work. I saw someone through some stuff out of their trunk onto my sidewalk and I marched right over and threw it back in. This was done by a woman in business dress, driving a pretty nice car. And there was a public trash can about 15 feet from where she was tossing her car trash….. She got definesive but mostly seemed embarassed.
stay at the house a couple of nights and when you see the guys doing it -start taking pictures and yelling for them to get the hell out of there.
OP here – we are the contractors and we have the motion-activated lights. SOOOOOOOOO frustrating.
I saw a recent This Old House where they were in a fringe neighborhood of Boston (not that bed Stuy is fringe, ducking) wherre the contractor put up a 12′, yes twelve foot, fence around the dumpster to keep people from throwing stuff in.
I think the added lights will probably help a lot.