- Did you know that 2017 saw the departure of Dave R., leader of the Woodside Neighborhood Association? What is the WNA?- only a group of volunteers- many of them kids- who met in front of Pollos Marios in Woodside every single Saturday morning at 10am, and spent the day cleaning up garbage, remediating graffiti, even mulching and planting flowers throughout Woodside and its surrounding neighborhoods. They spent long hours in the blazing sun toiling away. They spent frigid hours chipping at ice and clearing snow so that residents had paths to stores and subway stations. Many of them worked throughout the week, not just Saturdays. I do not know what has/will become of Woodside- hopefully the dedicated volunteers will continue Dave’s work. For reasons I do not understand, Dave felt like his efforts were not successful. I am SO sad that he feels this way. He was MY inspiration! Seriously, around 2014, when I complained to my husband (who worked with Dave’s crew often) about the filth of Elmhurst, my hubby said, “You can always follow Dave’s example and do your part to clean the streets”- a light dawned. I took up arms (a garbage can on wheels and a grasper on a stick, avalable in any dolla store for about 5 clams or at Home Depot for a still-reasonable mark-up). I rolled my cart just one block: the shitty desolate drug-gang hangout/city-wide-known-dump-spot/prostitution plagued/body-parts-droppoff filthy short block of 43rd Ave between 74th and 72nd Streets— and I picked up litter, and called 311 whenever someone dumped some huge pile (like the couch/car bumper/construction debris currently there). Dave sent a powerful message: If ye litter, I will clean up after you; If ye graffiti, I will paint over that sh*t toute de suite! I’ve been trying my best, and in the process I have had my life threatened, I’ve had some loser try to entice me into a shed while flashing his pathetic member, and I’ve been approached several times by some dude in a fancy big car whom I suspect of being a local drug sales specialist. I have grown very weary and depressed lately, and I admit I have thought of quitting my work (yes, I have skipped many Saturdays of clean-up). But you know what? I am NOT giving up! I am going to keep picking up litter, keep calling 311 when there is dumping, and... well... I can’t promise that I’ll have the guts to scream at crack dealers/cracksmokers anymore... but the litter, that’s my thing! No doubt someone will throw down another used condom or drug baggie as soon I’ve picked them up, but I will continue to pick them up. WHY? Because this is the neighborhood, the community, in which I live. I care about it. I care about you (unless you’re a liitering drug dealer).
Over and out.
De profundis clamo!
