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!

Clothing Bins

The photo below, taken last night, shows the typically filthy state of the two clothing bins at the intersection of Woodside Avenue and Broadway (across the street from Elmhurst Hospital). These bins are labeled with names of multiple organizations, which should be evidence that they are BS; in other words, no organization will benefit from clothing placed in these bins, because the bins are probably owned by some a-hole clothing resellers who will dig through the donations looking for any name-brand items that they can resell, and leave the rest- ie, the majority- of the clothes behind in a pile like that below. I just submitted a request to the DSNY to remove the bins. I'm not sure if they can, because they may be on private property. They seem to be on the property of the Car Wash. So if the car wash guy rents the space to the bin owners, I guess the DSNY cannot remove them. But hopefully the property owner will at least get a ticket for the crap pile below.

For anyone interested, here is the link to the DSNY Clothing Bin Removal Form

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In other news, 43rd Avenue wasn't TOO bad this weekend. No illegal dumping, thank God! The husband and I were able to clean it up in less than 30 minutes, and only filled two large trash bags. Progress?

October 8, 2014. My poor confused neighbor R.M.

At this point in my career as an amateur garbage collector (is it week 3 already?), I really should not be surprised by anything I find on 43rd Avenue. However, despite the fact that I have picked up a wide range of nasty goodies, up until last night I was still under the naïve belief that I would be safe from having to handle a stranger's underwear. Alas, here is the scene that greeted me:





And....



 



Here's a close-up of one of the labels, with the addressee's
 name and addy obscured.

I don't know how long this pile had been there. I usually only walk the Avenue on Saturdays and Sundays, because I don't have time to clean during the week and seeing garbage piles upsets me greatly. However, I guess I was feeling wild and crazy last night, because I took a chance and stole a glance down 43rd Avenue. Even in the dark from down the block, and despite my deteriorating visual acuity, I could see a big pile in the usual dumping spot. In addition to the underwear, there was a stack of cardboard boxes and a big trash bag full of what feels like paint cans. Interestingly, the boxes all had address labels still affixed. This makes me think that (1) the person who dumped these boxes  (R.M., the addressee?) really isn't very bright, or (2) maybe the boxes were stolen from R.M.'s front step and it was the thief who left the boxes on 43rd. But I don't think this is the case. The boxes were stacked somewhat neatly. If someone were going to steal boxes from someone's property, would they want to keep them stacked together? It seems more logical to dispose of them in separate places, or just toss them over the fence to the railroad tracks. My guess is that R.M. was considerate enough to try to keep his or her pile of crap more or less neat and in one place, because that would make things easier for the magic garbage fairy. (FWIW, I picture a garbage fairy looking like Courtney Love circa 1995: a hot mess, furious but in possession of an indomitable spirit and a pure heart. When people see her at work they say "Thank you! I love you for doing this" and she snarls back, "How do you know you can love me?" as she tosses another Styrofoam takeout  bucket into her garbage bag.)     

 

 

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??