Ridge corner still looks trashy

Household waste still continues to plague the intersection ofBay Ridge Avenue and Fourth Avenue, despite efforts to curtailit.

Over the past few months, the cans have been removed as part of apilot program to determine whether the corners were cleaner withoutthe cans than with them. Then, some got put back because the city’sDepartment of Sanitation (DSNY) determined they were needed, andmore are on the way, not because of the results of the pilotprogram, but in the wake of the completion of work on the subwaystation there.

After the program concluded, DSNY placed two high-end baskets on69th Street and Fourth Avenue by the subway station in order toaddress pedestrian litter from those going to and from the subway,said Matthew Lipani, a spokesperson for DSNY We will be adding twomore high-end baskets across the street. Overall, the streets arecleaner, and there is less household waste being placed oncorners.

But, the community feels like the receptacles are still beingmisused.

We need to stop people from throwing their personal garbage in thecans, said Dan Connor, who lives on Colonial Road. The SanitationDepartment should open up those individual bags, find their addressand send them a ticket in the mail. You can’t take the cans awaybecause it will just get worse.

Kirk, who lives on the corner of 68th Street and Fourth Avenue,said he feels for the merchants on the avenue. It bothers the goodpeople, he said. They want to give tickets to store ownersbecause people throw their trash in the street. It’s not the storeowners’ fault and it’s not fair.

Kirk went on to say that can removal will not solve the problem,either. People will still throw garbage on the floor because theydon’t have anyplace to put it, he said.

People also bring trash from their houses. It’s a terrible thing.You’re not supposed to do it and they should get a ticket.

His friend Mike Haimdim agreed. The corners are dirty, he said.We need those cans there.

But, Greg Ahl, the chairperson of Community Board 10’s SanitationCommittee, disagrees. We’re going backwards here. Without anylitter baskets at all the corners were perfectly clean, he said.Now they are back and the corners are so dirty. Trash is piling upnext to the cans. It doesn’t make any sense.

Josephine Beckmann, CB 10’s district manager, said she has afollow-up meeting with Sanitation officials in October to addressthis issue.

There is still too much household waste going into those cans,Beckmann said.

We are going to ask Sanitation to revisit the corners and makeanother assessment because something has to be done, Beckmannconcluded.

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