This was sent to me from Alana Ochoa Trafford who lives on 207th St between Hillside Avenue and 89th (not quite sure whose district this falls into). Here is what she has to say.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I live on 207th Street between Hillside Avenue and 89th Avenue and I want to inform you of a few issues that are increasingly making this block an unpleasant place on which to reside. Firstly, there is a hydrant completely engulfed by weeds close to Hillside Avenue. This happens every summer and no one seems to be responsible for clearing the weeds. I called 311 about it and I was told to call the Fire department, which I called and was told that they are not responsible for clearing the weeds. I then called your office more than a month ago to report the issue. Nothing has been done about it yet. Because people don’t care about the area, they are throwing garbage in the weeds. It has become a disgusting sight that I have to endure every day as I walk down the block to my house. Attached photo is a good illustration of the weeds engulfing the hydrant, though they have grown since the picture was taken.
Try to find the fire hydrant
Secondly, there are more weeds coming through a broken-down looking chain link fence at the entrance of a parking lot that is used by some of the businesses on Hillside Avenue. The fence looks like it is in dire need of repair and the weeds need to be cleared. As usual, neither has occurred and has never occurred in the three years I’ve lived here. Attached photo shows the weeds as well as the state of the fence.
Thirdly, as you can see from this photo, there is graffiti on the side of the building close to the aforementioned parking lot close to Hillside Avenue. Before the unsightly graffiti was sprayed on the building, there was a rather artistic looking mural that someone decided to cover in green paint. The green paint doesn’t completely cover the wall, which is puzzling. I’m not sure why this occurred, but this paved the way for the serpentine graffiti tagging that now exists. Attached photo is a better illustration of the graffiti.
More graffiti can be seen on buildings around the parking lot in attached photo.Lastly, attached photo (above) shows a garbage receptacle brimming over with bags. Sometimes the garbage makes its way onto the grounds of the parking lot and ultimately onto the sidewalk. See attached photo. Because of this situation, there are often unpleasant smells that emanate from the parking lot.
I, as well as other residents on this block, would be extremely grateful if something can be done to resolve these issues in a timely fashion. If necessary, I can be reached at 718-XXX-XXXX.
Thank you, Alana Ochoa Trafford________________________________________________
So, another unhappy constituent and a constituent who followed Councilman Leroy Comrie’s statement about contacting 311 and she even contacted the fire department (in regards to the hidden fire hydrant) and others and still it seems that nothing is being done about her situation on her block. And unlike me who uses nasty language, calls our elected leaders fuck-ups and do nothings, uses terms like low class ghetto and low class third world immigrants, Ms. Ochoa Trafford does none of that. This is a very well written plea, with no harsh language or name calling, she even starts out with Dear Sir/Madam, where I would probably have just said, “Hey Assholes”. So why no response to her pleas in regards to another quality of life issue?
What she is dealing with is the same shit they we are all dealing with all over Jamaica. As far as the over growing weeds ( a well too common site all over Jamaica), I encountered this mess on the totally low low low class ghetto section on the North side of Jamaica Avenue between 169th St & 170th St, right across the street from the nice block that has Bellitte Bicycles.
This block is nothing but super major low class ghetto/third world country shit, including the dirty Envy Nails Salon, a shitty furniture/mattress place (love the mattress out on the sidewalk in front of it, shown in the one photo) and empty store fronts and of course garbage all over. Sorry, but these types of people are just plain disgusting slobs (and what has ruined Jamaica). Well, I am not sorry, sorry that they live in our community. I would not call them people or human, more like sub-human. It seems we are moving backwards on the evolutionary scale. Just the other day I saw a “third world” woman sitting outside in a chair actually picking out stuff in her daughters hair for about 30 minutes and throwing it down on the ground, very similar to the grooming habits of primates. She had four other little rug rats running around and playing in some dirt and I was waiting for one of them to start throwing feces at the others.
Right around the corner of this shit, is the all too common, abandoned vehicle with no license plates or registration sticker. I told two police officers sitting in a car on 170th Street about two of these vehicles and they told me they would alert the crime unit. When I walked back to that area, the one was towed away, but the other was still there, so it got the clean-up Jamaica treatment, just in case they could not find it.
BEFORE
AFTER
Lastly, Pamela Hazel took a photo yesterday of the abandoned house at 107-58 164th, which I took photos of during our protest march on June 29th and reported the garbage conditions of the house and well, it looks like again nothing has been done for two weeks as the one photo shows.
Now do your damn jobs and help Ms.Alana Ochoa Trafford and clean up this other shit!
BY THE WAY, SENATOR TONY AVELLA FOR QUEENS BOROUGH PRESIDENT, THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR QUEENS.
Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY 11432
http://cleanupjamaicaqueens.wordpress.com/
6 comments:
In the good old days cars without plates or stickers were rolled into the street, bus stops, fire hydrants.
All it takes is a wheel jack under the rear axle or crossbeam and a good pull. (courtesy of the local Boogiemen)
The city confiscates & tows them right away --no more problem!!
The pirate "street sellers" have to pay $$$ hundred's in fees to get them back PLUS provide legit title in registration and insurance in there name.
---They never have it.
Alana -
Went to the school across the street from where you live. (1956 to 63) A good friend of mine lived about 4 doors down from that chain link fence.
Back then it did not look like this. There was no chain link fence, no graffiti and the property was kept up.
It would be great if you could move this neighborhood back to what it used to look like.
Isn't 207 & Hillside considered Queens Village. My Grandparents lived on 213 between Hillside & 89th. When they sold to retire in 1952, I was too young to buy their house. Always sorry I could not have had it. Still think about what it would be like living there.
Frustrating and sad to see this happening....and no real signs of officials addressing it.
This sucks.
However, I really have to respond re. the weeds, Joe. Some of those photos are NOT weeds - they're tree sprouts (or whatever they're called) - many of the street trees are more like bushes, trimmed before planting so they have just one trunk - serviceberry, for example. If unpruned, they look like crap. Parks keeps planting them because they grow fast, and begging people to become volunteer certified pruners (without certification touching a street tree leads to huge fines!)
The fire-hydrant issue shows how we rely on others to do stuff - if I lived there I'd do it myself - my safety is on the line, not to mention esthetics... I live in a mixed use neighborhood, and know the crap all too well! We also have many seniors who can't do stuff like weed-whack (or shovel snow, etc) and a few of us look out for them. . . that's the way it ought to be, IMO. 311 helps those who help themselves. Or not...
Forget it, Jake. It's Jamaica.
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