Weekend dumping, hysteria, looking a dealer/pimp(?) in the eye...

This is what is so depressing and frustrating and discouraging: yesterday afternoon I spent a good 2 hours picking up each and every scrap of garbage and debris from 43rd Avenue, every little parking receipt and crumpled tissue that I could find. By around 4:30pm I was exhausted, but the Avenue was spotless (between 72nd and 74th Streets at least). I went home satisfied, only to come out a couple hours later to find this:

 

 

Dec. 28, 2014 pile on 43rd Ave.
 

Box in the Dec 28 pile. Return address is B&N. Looks like the idiot who dumped this pile was
smart enough to remove his or her own name at least...

This seems like the only potential clue to the dumper's identity, if it was his or her own box and not just a box he found in the basement or on the street. I googled ODON DORON, 1536 (building number?) and 4E (apt #?), in various combinations, but I did not find anything useful.

Dug through some papers in the pile, but again, did not find anything that seemed useful in identifying the person. I thought perhaps the name in this confessional (?) note would be useful: looks like "Aaliyah R. Kelly"- but that is the name of the beautiful young singer who died tragically in a plane crash in the year 2001. So, I don't think she is our dumper. I don't even think R. Kelly is our dumper. Sure there were some dapper menswear boxes in the pile, but, I dunno, if you're rich and famous, surely you could hire someone who is smart enough to dispose of your personal items properly.

Personnel Concepts is a company that supplies OSHA and other
Employee Safety posters to companies. Police Corporation is the name of
some douchey-looking designer menswear company (from what I could find online).
Our dumper sure has fancy taste (see also the Fifth Avenue hat store box photo above).



 

And here of course we have yet another 43rd Avenue Whitefish. The one in the photo is the fourth that I saw just yesterday (Dec. 28) on 43rd. Oh, and while I was freaking out over the dump pile and yelling and crying like a lunatic, there was a car parked nearby that had a couple who looked like they were pretty, er, active in the backseat. I didn't exactly pause to look, and honestly I was too irate over this dump-pile to give a crap about people forking on the Avenue. But when I saw this 4th condom, after my hours of cleanup that resulted in nothing more than a f*ck-you-dump-pile, I just about gave up all hope. I mean, understand: I had already picked up 1, 2, 3 used condoms that same day from the same block.

I think I met the pimp who was waiting for the transaction in the car to wind down. When I spotted the dump pile from my corner, I stormed toward it furiously, but even in that state I noticed a guy hanging out by the overpass. He was just standing there playing a game on his phone (or so I surmised from the beeping/zinging noises the phone was emitting). The guy was about 15 feet from the parked car with the f*cking couple (and the parked car was pretty much right in front of the dump pile). So I was crying and cursing like a crazy lady, and taking flash photos of the pile, and using my phone flashlight (which is actually pretty powerful) while I was digging through the boxes frantically trying to find a name and address (don't know why though; when someone actually dumped boxes with his name and address on it and I reported it to 311, the operator said that there was nothing she could do with the info). After a few minutes of me looking/acting like a lunatic, and probably causing too much of a ruckus too close to the f*ckmobile, the guy came over to me and said, in a really annoyed kind of tone, "What are you looking for?" I turned to him and I swear I was crying, I mean, I was SO hurt and frustrated at that point that I didn't even care if he was a pimp, or a dealer who was protecting his turf and about to blow my head off, and I just said "I'm looking for an address of the person who did this! I just cleaned this entire block, and look what someone did!!" I must have sounded so hysterical that he just sort of rolled his eyes and went back to his post. The people in the car never even seemed to notice my presence (if they did, it certainly did not interfere with their activity, from the moving shapes/shadows I could see in the darkened car window).

Yeah, so it was a holiday weekend full of prostitution (or at least blatant street f*cking) and dumping, and a seemingly wasted 2 hours of my life.


UPDATE: 12:32pm: My hubby called to inform me that the garbage was picked up already! (I had called this in to 311 last night.) YAY!!!!!!!!!!THANK YOU THANK YOU DSNY!!!!

43rd Ave Real Estate Update

UPDATE: As of Dec 28, Awesome John C. (AKA, Fire Alarm Guy) removed the graffiti from the windows, and someone else (the owner??) removed some of the graffiti from the side of the building. YAY!!!

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple months ago I wrote about a vacant building on 43rd Avenue. It was constructed several years ago. It went up in record time (I hadn't known a building could be brought into being so quickly). But then I guess the owner ran into problems- financial or permit issues, who knows- and construction came to a halt as quickly as it had begun. For the next couple of years this majestic edifice was "protected" by a few planks of collapsing, rotting, and graffitied upon plywood and a mote of garbage. After several neighbors called in complaints to 311, someone (the owner?) finally took down the pathetic construction fence, removed the garbage, and cut the weeds. Then at least it looked much better. But now I fear that it looks TOO good, at least to local young(ish) people who see it as a nifty hangout spot. They have marked their territory with some illegible scribbling on the back door, the stairwells (including the marble), a side window, and the walls. Yesterday I went down both stairwells (there's one in front and back) to pick up trash. As expected, there were many used condoms and drug baggies. There was plenty of other crap as well, including booze bottles, a hairbrush, a baby bottle(?!), a pair of eyeglasses, and a carpet of ciggy butts.

 

I don't know what to do. I guess we can't paint over most of the graffiti (just the back door, which requires some simple white paint). Can graffiti be scrubbed off bricks? Or marble? It's so pathetic that these losers even tagged the marble. Really, what in the fork is wrong with people? How ugly do they want their environment (and, by extension, life) to be?

 

At least the doors are locked now. Of course, this could just mean that the people living inside like to keep their "home" safe from intruders.

 

 

 

December 19,2014 Dumping 💩

Update: I called 311 the night I saw this crap (Friday, Dec. 19). It was gone by the following morning. Thank you as always, DSNY!!

Holiday decor: seasonal tree skirt and medical waste!

The previous post included a photo of a blue mop head in the filthy gutter in front of a business near the Roosevelt Avenue stop. Unbelievably, this mop head was still present as of this morning. I lost count of how many weeks it has been there.

12/15/14. Mop head in the gutter in front of a local business.
 

Additionally, a mop head now decorates the base of a nearby tree. I don't know if this is one of the mop heads from the gutter that somehow ended up back on the sidewalk, or a brand new one for the holiday season. I guess it does make a good tree skirt. And presents are certainly piling up underneath (if you consider cigarette butts and bottle caps presents).

~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~ 

Meanwhile, the medical office next door contributed its own decorations to the sidewalk in the form of what appears to be a dirty chuck or drape, and a pair of exam gloves in the gutter.

 

12/15/14. Sidewalk in front of a medical office.

12/15/14: Close-up of litter in front of the medical office.



12/15/14: Exam glove (?) in gutter in front of medical office....
though honestly I find these all over the neighborhood,
so maybe it didn't even come from a medical facility.

 

I'll give this medical office the benefit of the doubt and assume that a garbage bag ripped at night (raccoons/possums/cats?), debris blew out onto the sidewalk, and when the employees come in this morning they will clean it up right away. If this is still there tonight, I am going to be pissed (and majorly skeeved). A kindly commenter to my last post suggested I make the names of these businesses public on yelp, but so far I've been too chicken to do so. In my mind I justified my chicken-hood by  saying "Well, maybe these businesses actually are clean inside, and just are too busy to deal with  their gutters." But honestly, the medical-waste-on-the-sidewalk and month-plus presence of guttermops are giving me second thoughts.

 

UPDATE December 22, 2014: I have disposed of these two mopheads!! That's right, for the first time in weeks, there are no blue mopheads in the gutter in front of a certain "medical" office on 74th!! At least, there weren't any as of 8:30 this morning... maybe they've been replaced with new ones though, or some other new form of nastiness. Yeah, I felt so relieved getting that second mophead this morning on the way to work. I picked up the first one yesterday afternoon, when I made an intentional OGCLE cleaning trip all the way down 74th Street to Roosevelt (usually I stop at Woodside Ave, but these mopheads were nagging at me). I was only able to pick up one yesterday because the other was under the tire of a parked car (believe me, I did give it a good tug, but it wouldn't budge). I wasn't really planning to collect the 2nd one this morning, but when I walked by, I saw it just lying there (no car parked over it) and I could not pass up the opportunity. So I grabbed a couple of plastic bags (there are always a few plastic bags kicking around), picked it up, and deposited it in the corner trash can. Thus ends my month-long saga. The white whale has been speared! (rather, bagged and deposited in the proper receptacle). Oh yeah, a lady saw me pick up this filthy and dripping mophead, and when I walked by her on the way to the trash can she stopped and stared at me in what looked like disgust and horror and uttered "J_ Christ!"

Dining at Chateau Guttermop tonight?

Below are photos of the gutters that I pass every morning on my way to the train. These gutters are NOT on 43rd Avenue; they are actually in front of two very hopping businesses.

 

Would you seek medical care in a doctor's office that looks like this out front?

 (Ya think Infection Control is high on their list of priorities? I'm guessing not.)

The two blue mop heads at the top of this photo

have been here for at least 3 weeks (that's when

I first noticed them at least). The street

sweeper rolls right over them, and it never occurs to the

business owner(s) to pick them up.

Would you dine in a restaurant that looks like this out front?

(Seriously, what do you think their kitchen looks like?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I started this blog with the intention of documenting only the filth of 43rd Avenue. But once I rolled up my sleeves and started picking up garbage,* I became more aware of nastiness in other parts of the neighborhood. I have been passing sights like this for years, and I guess I just subconsciously forced myself to ignore them. But now, unfortunately, I cannot help but see them.

 

*I don't really roll up my sleeves when I go out on a trash pick-up. Believe me, I do not want to risk skin contact with some of the things I find on the streets and sidewalks round these parts!

 

Maybe the stretch of 43rd between 72nd and 74th Street is more susceptible to filthy conditions because a large part of it is made up of the railroad overpass, so no one is legally (as a homeowner would be) responsible for keeping the sidewalk and gutter clean. But the photographs above were taken in front of businesses. Moreover, they are the types of businesses that you really would want to have higher standards of cleanliness: a restaurant and a medical office.

 

Perhaps the owners of these businesses think that the city is responsible for anything beyond the sidewalk. Even if that were true (and from what I understand of the DSNY regs, pasted below, it is not), wouldn't it be in the business owner's interest to keep their gutters at least relatively clean? I think the only reason that business owners ignore crap like this is because their customers ignore it. This is what bothers me so much: maybe the people who patronize these businesses have just become so inured to the presence of filth/trash/dumping/general nastiness that that they no longer register it in their conscious minds. How can I open peoples' eyes and make them see that life does not have to be this ugly, and that they deserve better? Maybe I should bring my cart down to these gutters and do a trash pick-up.....perhaps when business owners see some random person cleaning their property they will be shamed into taking care of their own gutters! (I doubt it, but I can't think of anything else.) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

For what it's worth: I looked up the city regulations about sidewalks and gutters, and from what I understand of this paragraph below, merchants/business/stores are responsible for gutter areas 18 inches from their curb.

 

From the DSNY Rules and Regulations: Except where specifically noted, the following laws are applicable to all residents, merchants, businesses, stores, restaurants, and commercial and residential premises....The sidewalks (including areas like tree pits, grass strips, etc.) and gutter areas (18 inches from the curb into the street) along the building perimeter must be kept clean. Sweepings must be picked up and deposited in suitable containers for collection. Sanitation litter baskets may not be used for this purpose.