The Roosevelt/74th Street Eyesore: Some Hope

Clearly the MTA and city do not care how crappy the neighborhood looks. The photo below captures the scene that greets people as they exit the Roosevelt Avenue train station: a construction fence that serves as a canvas for every troglodyte loser graffiti scribbler in the area. It seems like a new tag appears every day. This train station is a major transportation hub. I always see people exiting the station with suitcases (after catching the E from the JFK air train?). Imagine if you were a tourist and this sh*tstye was your first encounter with the great city of New Yawk. Well, let's not forget that first these poor souls had to navigate the disgusting airports, and then the even more disgusting Roosevelt Ave station, where people live in the Bank of America kiosk, groups of severely drunk dudes sit/sleep on the benches all day and night....  And good luck to you if you need to use the bathroom in this station: you think Starbucks provides people with public bathing facilities (via the sinks), well, at least Starbux bathrooms have doors with locks. In the Roosevelt Ave train station the bathroom doors are propped open at all times (for safety reasons), but this lack of privacy does not deter people bathing, forking, shaving their legs, crapping in the sink, et cetera. 

Anyway, here's a photo of the "temporary" fence that has been up for 3 years now.

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UPDATE: Wed., Feb. 17, 2016

Today the Woodside Neighborhood Association painted over the graffiti-covered "temporary" fence across the street from the Roosevelt Avenue train station. These kids did the work that the property owner and local elected officials and MTA ignored for several years. Yeah the fence is private property, but since it is adjacent to a huge train station,  and across the street from the much-touted Diversity Plaza, the city and MTA really should have kept it clean. Clearly they do not give a crap about this neighborhood, though. Thankfully the awesome people- many of them teenagers- of the Woodside Neighborhood Association volunteered their time to do this job. Thank you!!!

 

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.

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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.

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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.

One Day Only: A clean, beautiful 43rd Avenue!

The only substance is the *snow*/

And it hides all that has gone wrong

    ~~Sleater-Kinney (adapted)

Ah, the BLIZZARD of 2016: it started snowing Friday night, and continued to snow all day Saturday, dropping about 27 inches in total.

Here is a photo taken last night, when it was still snowing.

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The one good thing about a blizzard is that it covers all the filth! Behold, a pristine 43rd Avenue:

THANK YOU to the DSNY, as well as to the folks who were hired to shovel, and to all emergency service personnel who have been working so hard to keep us safe in this storm. You are all heroes!

2016 is off to a filthy start

Ah, early January, the beginning of a new year. Tis a time when we welcome the new and bid adieu to the old. For some people, this translates into getting rid of old stuff that is cluttering up their closets/homes/garages. Decent folks would donate usable items to charity, recycle old magazines, and arrange for proper disposal of garbage. But 'round these parts, dirtbag lazy LOSERS just drive* their old crap to 43rd Avenue and unload it on the sidewalk. (*They had to have driven this stuff here, because it is way too massive to have transported via pushcart.) So, even though these losers have access to a vehicle, they chose to drive it to a quiet little sidewalk on a residential block and dump it there.

WHY?!?! 

Pile #1 has magazines with address labels. The address is on Eastern Parkway. Did this effer really drive from Brooklyn to unload their crap?! Does 43rd Avenue's rep as prime dumping ground really extend to other boroughs?

Pile #2. Looks like someone retiled their kitchen, and dumped the old rotten tiles and floor boards on 43rd Ave. Because why not? Someone else can clean up this mess, right?!

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(Service Request #: C1-1-1194035201)

~~~~~~UPDATE: the DSNY picked up this crap within a day or two of my 311 call. Thank you DSNY!!! As always, you did a great job!