"My life is sh*t and piss"

~*from the song "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor" by The Eels 

So this fine morning, I found THIS

and THIS

...and also lots of blue drug baggies. I also noticed several groups of druggy losers on the Ave and in the alley of the corner crackhouse.

Apparently the cracksters found (well, created) a new point of entry by pushing the AC through the window: 

Oh, and word on the street is that "WT" is a gang tag. Apparently the WT folks just took over the crackhouse. Well, at least the WTs know how to write proper letters- i can't make heads or tails of the tags that the former gang

scribbled. WTs' elementary school teachers must be so proud!

On a brighter note, a kind gentleman gave me a chocolate chip cookie!

Spring, and crap, are in the air! (and on the sidewalk, in the gutter, in the streets, etc.)

Pictured below is a smattering of this week's collected drug baggies from the 43rd Avenue overpass. There were a few more that I threw directly into the trash because I was just too disgusted (though one bag was discarded by accident; it had a 4:20 logo design, maybe a special from this past Wednesday-?). 

The local elementary school's crossing guard says that she sees druggy losers selling on the 43rd Avenue overpass in the afternoon, when the kids get out of school. Great. According to her, the popo don't carecare because these fine tradesmen  are "not threatening anyone." 

So I am off to patrol the avenue myself. If this blog is no longer updated, it probably means that I was stabbed in the head by one of our 43rd Ave entrepreneurs. 

Peace!

The State of the Avenue: March 19

This Elmhurst whitefish was left on the church steps :(

Dumping:

And it would not be 43rd Ave without drug crap galore!

Drug baggies found on 43rd Avenue between 72nd and 74th Streets:

Make of this what you will... 

The State of the Avenue: Saturday, March 12

Sorry I am posting late, but I have had a rough week. 

Below are some highlights from last weekend's OGCLE run* (*okay, waddle)...

A poor little chicken was deposited on my neighbor's curb :(

The usual number of drug baggies was found on 43rd Avenue :(

Aqua Fina, Elmhurst Style

-The photo below makes me think of Jonathan Swift's description of urinating: "making water." 

Of course, litter was abundant, as always.

Open (Crack) House! No fee! No credit check!

Looking for some prime squatting/f*cking/drugging grounds? Well come on down to the pride of Elmhurst, the neighborhood crackhouse! As you can see from the photo below, the door is usually open! 

Now this fine abode was erected in 2011, but was never quite finished. So that means no plumbing-- sorry. Most folks excrete waste in the alley on the side, tho I suspect plently also drop a load right on the floor indoors (so be careful if you are entering via one of the broken windows: you may well land ankle-deep in feces.. also, hypodermic needles, and who knows what else?).

I took the photo below from outside, because I refuse to commit a b&e (though would it even be considered a b&e if the door is open?). As you can see, our local talent has decorated the walls inside too! Aren't they so generous with their gifts?

And here's a photo of the outdoor toilet. Yes, you too can crap outdoors, the way nature intended!

Feb. 26: Four hours of filth

This past Saturday, I spent a grand total of 4 hours picking up crap from 43rd, 44th, and Woodside Avenues between 72nd and 74th Streets. I filled 3 large trash bags. 

Fancy a nap?

Drug baggies du jour:

And of course some of these:

And some quality booze to get you in the mood:

Thankfully there wasn't any major dumping, just the usual litter:

Again, the 3 short blocks I cleaned weren't in the middle of nowhere. They are all blocks on which people reside, and in close vicinity to a church, a preschool, and a huge elementary school. It is SO not okay for kids to walk by such disgusting crap- ie, the condoms, tiny drug baggies with white powder residue, empty booze botyles. What the fork?- doesn't ANYONE around here think this is problematic?! Ugh!

What else is new?

Sunday morning on 43rd Avenue:

A festive Valentine's Day was had on 43rd Avenue!

Yesterday I went out in the freezing cold and picked up every piece of litter from the Avenue. (FWIW, I filled 2 trash bags with the crap from this short block between 74th and 72nd). I stupidly thought that yesterday's clean-up would at least last through the night, especially since it was like 0 degrees. I believed that the frigid temperature would keep the usual troglodyte druggy sh*tbags and dumpers indoors. But alas, neither cold nor frost nor -5 degree wind chills will keep the garbage (human and otherwise) off 43rd Avenue.

This blue baggie was right on the church steps.

Ah, romance was in the air! 

Nothing keeps you warm like a belly full of Georgi! (Georgi is actually better for the OGCLE: it comes in a plastic bottle so at least I do not have to clean up broken glass.)

Here we have a pile of 43rd Ave crap, along with what looks like frozen urine.

And of course, we have to have some more dumping! This looks like it is from the same f*ckhole whose crap I picked up yesterday: old clothes mixed with construction debris. The OPEN orange bucket contained linoleum paste; thankfully it froze and did not stick to the ground. It was heavy as f*ck to lift.

                       ~~~~~~~

I apologize for cursing so much, but I am SO disgusted and FURIOUS!- I mean, what the serious fork is wrong with people?!? These items were left around the corner from a church with a preschool as well as P.S. 12, so little kids have to pass booze and drug and sex leavings. I grew up in Flatbush in the 80s and I remember collecting the ubiquitous discarded crack viles because the caps came in different colors, and the vials made good Barbie cups. I mean, that sh*t is not right!! Kids should not have to be exposed to this kind of crap!!

The snow melted, revealing crap as usual

Yesterday I spent 4.5 hours picking up litter. I collected 3 stuffed-to-capacity trash bags of litter from a grand total of 4 blocks. That's right, 4 measly blocks. 

The highlights were as follows:

1. Four too-heavy-to-lift bags dumped in a parking spot on Woodside Between 72nd and 74th Streets. Quite frankly I am surprised that no one dragged them onto the sidewalk; parking spaces 'round heeyah are few and far between.

           ~~~~~~~

2. This photo sums up the general state of things: litter everywhere, accumulated since my last OGCLE run some time before the 'zard. God forbid anyone clean the sidewalk or curb in front of their residence or business.

~~~~~~~~~~

3. Now we get to Forty-turd Avenue. Thankfully there was no dumping this week. I guess it was too hard to drive bags of trash down an unplowed tertiary road like 43rd; the dumpers opted for Woodside Avenue instead (see above).

But there was plenty of the typical 43rd Ave litter: booze bottles, drug sh*t, and Elmhurst water balloons.

The car in the photo above was occupied by a pot-smoking hipster (beard and everything). I was picking up trash around his car when the smell hit me. 

My most interesting find was the bag captured in the photographic image below. There was a big green container and a bunch of, er, button baggies (which have other uses on 43rd Ave). I just threw this out. Maybe the container was full of buttons, or maybe it was full of weed... I would feel very bad if I threw out a crafter's accumulation of supplies (eg, buttons, beads). But if this was some kind of drug crap, sorry not sorry.

Drug baggies on church steps :(

This is the collection I found on the steps yesterday (43rd Ave near 72nd Street), along with a big empty bottle of Beam...

And this is the collection I found this morning, along with a can of Bud in the flowers:(

The Wacky Weeders: 43rd Ave's Own Meetup Group!

Interested in meeting some really awesome peeps? Then check out 43rd Ave any evening around 9:30pm! The Wacky Weeders gather every night in front of the overpass to smoke, imbibe (Cap'n Morgan all the way, baybay!), and exchange ideas. 

They used to make at least a perfunctory effort to be discreet, but I guess with the more leniant pot laws, they don't even bother. Welcome to life in NYC 2015 :(

Idling Away On Easter Sun-day

Date: Easter Sunday 2015 (April 5)

Locus: The unfinished building/local drug hangout on the corner of 43rd Ave. 

Tempus: About 9:30pm
 

Characters: A small group of male humans.

Stance: Huddled in a tight circle by the back door of the building.

Wacky weed scent in the air? No, strangely enough. This makes me wonder if they were conducting a more nefarious exchange.

Length of time engaged in said activity: Short. So short in fact that they left their car parked with the engine running (see below). Thanks dudes. Not only do you litter the ground with drug baggies, blunts, and empty Bambu packets, but you pollute the air as well. I almost miss the old days when the corner smelled of weed instead of car exhaust!

The Weekend Sweep (September 27-28, 2014)

Thankfully there were no incidents of dumping on my lil stretch o' land this past weekend. There was plenty of litter to contend with though: I did a pick-up on both Saturday and Sunday (even though I picked up every piece of litter I could find on Saturday, by Sunday afternoon 43rd Ave, 74th Street, and Woodside Avenue were full of debris again).

 

Most of the litter I encountered consisted of the usual booze bottles and plain white styrofoam takeout containers. But I did find an interesting item for my medical waste collection* (*this is a PHOTO collection; I throw out the items after photographing 'em). I found the item pictured below on 43rd Avenue. I looked it up on the BD vacutainer chart. This light-blue-topped vacutainer contains sodium citrate and is used for coagulation studies. This one doesn't appear to have been used--at least, no blood was visible to my naked eyeball. But it's just gross to find such an item on the street.

 

BD Vacutainer, found on 43rd Avenue between 72nd and 74th Streets on Saturday, 9/27/14

~~~~~~~~~~~  

AND, what neighborhood clean-up would be complete without the discovery of drug baggies? I found all three of these babes in a single patch of sidewalk grass, on 43rd Avenue close to 74th Street. I also found a snuff jar (I found another snuff jar, same brand, the following day). As far as I know snuff is legal; after all, it's tobacco, no?- so if cigs are legal I'd think that snuff would be, but I'm really not sure so if anyone knows, please drop me a line.

Three drug baggies and jar of snuff, found on 43rd Avenue near 74th Street on 9/27/14



Ah, 43rd Avenue: keeping it classy!

Okay, this photo was staged: I found the bottle and the drug baggies in different sections of 43rd, not right next to each other.

I'm going to save the drug baggies from now on, and see how many I can collect in a week. Probably a lot. Maybe I'll make a collage.

The ubiquitous drug baggies were part of my motivation to start picking up garbage in my neighborhood. You see, there is a C.A. group that meets around here, and I always thought it was offensive to people who are actively struggling to OVERCOME their addictions to have to walk among drug paraphernalia.

 

9/26/14 Update (and tangential scribblings): The sad thing about being a human being is that you are just one of however-many-bazillion other human beings; as such, the likelihood of having a unique idea is low. I just read that someone already came up with the idea of collecting drug baggies. Though I was disappointed to learn that I'm not  as ground-breakingly brilliant as I thought, I have to admit that I find this guy's project pretty neat. You can read about British photographer Dan Giannopoulos's project here: http://gianphotography.com/discarded-drug-baggies/

 

I haven't seen such a variety of drug baggy designs in Elmhurst. But I do remember finding an autumnal-themed baggy last year-- I think it featured pumpkins. I wish I saved it, or at least photographed it. I thought it was very quaint, and wondered if MStew had expanded her vast empire to include drug baggy production. After all, if there is a buck to be made somewhere, Martha will sniff it out in no time. Did you know she sells her own line of pills now? For real! Didn't she learn anything from Dr Phil's foray into the diet pill scene in the early 2000's??