First, thanks to the Woodside Neighborhood Association and John C. for taking care of the graffiti on Woodside Avenue circa 72nd Street! I was very embarrassed that conditions in the "OGCLE territory" had deteriorated to such an extent. I had not done a proper OGCLE litter pick-up since the snow melted. I've been getting lazy, and using the snow and ice as an excuse to not make my rounds. But when Dave and his masked friend arrived to paint over the graffiti on Sunday, they inspired me to get moving again. So Sunday afternoon, I put in about 3 hours of litter collection. In all that time I only managed to cover 43rd Avenue (between 72nd and 74th), and 72nd Street. I filled 3 garbage bags with litter just from those 2 blocks, which is...depressing, yes. It's also a reminder that I have to collect litter regularly, because it gets out of control VERY quickly.
Notes: In the 2-block stretch of 43rd, I found 3 Elmhurst whitefish (and a lot more wrappers), and drug baggies galore. So, apparently the snowy and freezing conditions of these last few weeks did not put a damper on the usual 43rd Avenue activities. Speaking of which....
Sunday evening around 10pm, I decided to go for a stroll/patrol of 43rd Avenue. I was horrified to see that there was litter everywhere again, just a few hours after I'd picked up every scrap I could find. In addition to the litter, someone had deposited a broken dining room chair on the Avenue. I know I should be grateful that this wasn't 311-worthy dumping like that Sunday night in December. But it pissed me off all the same. If you cannot already tell from reading this blog, I'm a ~little~ nutty when it comes to litter. When I saw how filthy the Avenue had become in just a matter of hours, I of course started yelling to myself (and anyone who was around) things like "Gross!" "What is wrong with people?!?" Toward the 72nd Street part of the Avenue, I saw a sizable group (at least 6, I think) of people. When I got closer, yelling and picking up litter along the way, I smelled wacky weed, and got a better view of the smokers of said product. They appeared to be well-dressed (in dark suits/going-out attire) youngish men, and they were standing by an idling car. (FWIW, the car was a dark blue, new-looking sedan.) When I got about 20 feet from them, they hustled into the car and sped away. Thank goodness! The nerve of them, stopping off on 43rd Avenue to get high before they go out clubbing. I mean, what the fork? How would they like someone driving up to their homes and standing around outside getting high? (Heck, they probably would like it- maybe they would just go out front and see if they could bum a toke.)
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My friend "Dana" told me about her own encounter with some suspicious characters on 43rd Avenue. Last Wednesday evening, Dana was the in vicinity of 43rd Avenue and 72nd Street around 8:45pm. The church on that corner had just completed its Lenten evening service. Dana left a few minutes after the main crowd, so the area was pretty deserted. She noticed two guys standing around, looking "very suspicious." She said they were looking around, darting hither and yon, and one of them was carrying a nearly-empty looking backpack (ie, it looked like it might contain a spray paint can and nothing else). She said they were definitely older than teenagers- looked to be in their 20s or 30s. She asked them what they were doing, and one of them replied tersely, "Mind your own business." Thankfully, she did- she drove off. Perhaps they were "only" packing spraypaint, but one never knows. I'm glad she didn't engage them further. I have this fantasy that if I had seen them, and they told me to mind my own business, I would reply, "I live here. Therefore, what goes on here IS my business!" But (1)I am way too chicken, and (2)challenging random suspicious-acting strangers might very well lead to death, or at least get me shot or stabbed. In any event, I'm glad Dana is okay, and I am glad no new graffiti showed up that night. Of course, that begs the questions, what were those two guys doing if they weren't graffiti-ing? Ugh, I don't even want to know :o(
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