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Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
The Trashing of Tribeca
“In parts of Tribeca, it seems like the streets and sidewalks have become more and more filthy with litter,” emailed K. “I notice trash bins constantly overflowing, and the trash blowing into the street, where it seems like it’s no one’s job to pick it up. It makes me so sad and frustrated because I love my neighborhood, but I hate that it has become so dirty. I don’t remember it always being this way. How might we go about reporting and fixing this? I’ve submitted complaints to the 311 website, but I don’t exactly have faith in how effective that might be.”
The first place to start is by contacting Community Board 1 (212-669-7970, man01@cb.nyc.gov), and if you have submitted complaints to 311, send CB1 the complaint numbers. (That said, in my experience, 311 works best—when it works at all—regarding very specific issues, rather than neighborhood-wide ones.) In recent months, CB1’s garbage-related efforts have been focused primarily on the huge piles of trash bags being set out on narrow sidewalks by all the new residential buildings.* According to one member, however, the Quality of Life Committee has addressed the overflowing-garbage-can issue at some point: “I have vague memories that getting the Department of Sanitation to either put out more cans or to increase pick-ups seems harder than getting a traffic light.” And that’s extremely hard. Moreover, “Pick-ups are proportioned across the boroughs—they can’t increase here without increasing in every neighborhood. I’m sure there are ways around that, but that is the basic battle.”
It’s probably also worth contacting the DSNY via this form, if only so that you can say that you tried. But I think that if you really want to get change on this subject, you’ll need someone—CB1, city councilmember Margaret Chin, borough president Gale Brewer, mayor Bill de Blasio—to lean on the DSNY. You could try reminding the politicians that garbage leads to vermin, which will negatively affect real-estate developers, and nobody wants that. (Semi-joke.) Or you could tweet photos of overflowing garbage cans at them until they respond….
If anyone out there has more info on this topic, please share it.
*Here’s what the CB1 member had to say about those mountains of garbage…. “Many regulations, few effective. Can’t put garbage out until 4 p.m., but residential pick-up, as you know, can happen the next morning. (Businesses are on a tighter leash. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I believe pick-ups have to happen within 3 or 4 hours of closing. Obviously that is not happening consistently.) The DSNY loves to hand out tickets, but there’s no enforcement. In effect, tickets do not have to be paid until a building is sold, at which point they are basically a lien and can get passed on to the buyer.”
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Regarding the main issue of this post, solar-powered trash compactors have replaced litter baskets on many street corners in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.
(See 9/2014: http://www.downtownny.com/press-releases/the-downtown-alliance-expands-innovative-solar-powered-trash-collection-by-adding
and 3/2016: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/39/13/dtg-solar-trash-cans-2016-03-25-bk.html)
Among the benefits:
* They reduce the number of pickups required for a given amount of litter, holding up to 5x the litter
* They signal wirelessly when a pickup is needed, making better use of labor to pick up trash from the full barrels instead of having to routinely check every barrel or increase pickups
* They have an opening to put trash that limits the size of litter placed inside, discouraging their use for household trash
* Their cost can be defrayed by advertising
* By reducing litter they were shown to reduce rat burrows:
“In New York, city-commissioned research supports the theory that BigBellys reduce rat infestations. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioned its own rodent expert-in-residence, Robert Corrigan, and colleague John Johnson to conduct a one-year study in Thomas Paine Park in lower Manhattan, where the rodent population was known to subsist on food foraged from open trash bins. BigBelly Solar donated three compactors for use in the study, installed in March 2011 to replace three overflowing trash bins near 14 known rat burrows. A year later, only one of the nests remained.”
(http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/10/17/garbage-compactors/)
Among the downsides: There are doubtlessly many people who would rather not have to touch a garbage can in order to throw something away. I have a vague recollection of the Downtown Alliance testing Big Belly compactors with foot pedals, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one.
http://bigbelly.com/solutions/stations/customization/#footpedal
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/05/27/pedal-operated-bigbelly-trash-cans/
http://bigbelly.com/city-of-london-adopts-bigbelly-foot-pedal-bins/
The streets are also a mess because the street cleaner can’t do their jobs. Reade and Duane have city cars parked on them who don’t move and the rest of the cars generally sit their un ticketed.
Yes – we have this issue with NYC cars parked semi-permanently in front of our building on Murray Street. It means we don’t get street cleaners – they’re blocked from doing their job. Incredibly frustrating – and the hypocrisy is nuts, since Sanitation writes us weekly tickets, but city cars illegally parked prevent proper cleaning.
You may also want to contact the NYC Mayor’s Office that tracks sidewalk and street cleanliness.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/operations/performance/scorecard-street-sidewalk-cleanliness-ratings.page
It is time for NYC to enact 24/7 trash removal. Many European cities have it and I am always surprised no mayoral candidate pushes this idea on their agenda. It will create more jobs, alleviate the trash problem, and might even help with the rats.
The only thing the DSNY does well is ticket Tribeca. All the BS tickets my building received is one of the main reasons we installed a camera outside so we can have proof to dispute those tickets.
Also ACE has withdrawn from Soho and Tribeca and that has hurt.
It doesn’t even do that well.
See my previous comment here:
https://tribecacitizen.wpengine.com/2017/02/08/nosy-neighbor-why-is-there-always-trash-outside-the-post-office/#comment-105313
Much of the refuse (on my block, at least) is due to the trash pickers tearing open our carefully sorted bags.
The best solution is something like what they do in Barcelona ( http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1sAmiqCe7E/U9ZNtXZ5cXI/AAAAAAAAGuU/nA6RHMiLYLQ/s1600/recycling.jpg ) it would mean giving up a parking space every couple of blocks but would end the need to pile trash on the street and would eliminate cans and free up sidewalk space.
The ‘trashnado’ that forms on Greenwich st. between North Moore and Harrison is due to the open garbage cans and high winds. I have to cover my eyes on windy days so trash doesn’t get blown into them! I contacted the DSNY to ask for covered cans for the corner and was denied.
NYC 311 phone app for complaints currently has nothing for garbage/recycle (only Rat or Mouse Condition or Illegal Dumping). This needs to be changed since these problems cannot reported.
Also, there is more and more dog poop on the sidewalks these days. Why have pets if you can’t clean up after them….. it’s just nasty!!
There is a noticeable increase in dog waste on the sidewalks these days. I applaud all those pet owners who take the time to diligently clean up after their pets. Dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets or disobey the “no pets” rules on park lawns are just imposing the cost of ownership on to the rest of society. That behavior is illegal and unsanitary. These societal costs need to be imposed back on those who choose to own dogs — the pooper scooper law is insufficient. There should be required participation for all dog owners in a specified neighborhood to do periodic morning clean up duty to rid the sidewalks of any waste left by any other irresponsible dog owners and to scrub the sides of buildings.
Face it People; Some things never change
Many buildings on Reade St between Broadway and Greenwich, including commercial tenants, had contributed to the non-profit ACE program for 1-2x / day x 7 days per week cleaning that covered the sidewalks and 12″ from the curb into the street. We had to do this because our petition to get alternate side street parking on Reade between Broadway and Church was not approved last year. If it had been approved, it would have resulted in the block receiving basic NYC street cleaning services. ACE no longer operates in lower Manhattan. ACE also checked and bagged the overflowing city trash bins when they cleaned the street.
Re: The European garbage collection system- while unsightly, having large drop off points would also allow more collection of organic matter for compost, mean residents would need to keep less recycling in their homes all week (my kitchen is filled with separate containers for paper, glass/plastic/metal, plastic wrap/film, flattened cardboard boxes, plus regular trash, with compost in the freezer…). Surely the city would save time & money picking up one large container instead of a hundred small bags over multiple stops. And if they were well designed and placed, they could to fit into the neighborhood better than the examples shown.
Re: Greenwich Street- years ago when I used to walk my kids to 234 in the mornings, I would see the front loading garbage trucks pick up the dumpsters from Independence Plaza and pour the trash into top loading trucks, and the almost constant wind would cause a lot of loose garbage- mostly plastic bags & paper- to fly out and into the street.