"I am a big fan of what you do for our community.Check out the attached pictures of a lovely shopping plaza around the corner from me on 21st Street between 34th avenue and Broadway in Astoria. This is how it looks every single day. If our elected officials are serious about Astoria's garbage problem, this wouldn't be a bad place to start.
I love my neighborhood but it really is filthy and people just seem to accept it, which is crazy. It's the people --not everyone, not even most-- but enough people to ruin it for everyone else.
Here, I blame the owner of the strip mall, but I have to say that I do not really blame the city for the overall situation in Astoria. No amount of trash cans could be put on the corners, no amount of work by the Department of Sanitation could keep up with the volume of trash discarded at random on every well-traveled street in this neighborhood (Ditmars actually isn't so bad).
Last weekend I was walking down the street, when an individual emerged from her house in the middle of the day and scooped an unfinished plate of food onto the street --right in front of me-- made eye contact and calmly walked back into her house. I can't even count the number of times that I've walked home from work from the Broadway stop, literally kicking garbage out of my way as I walk home; I've gotten used to that, but I don't think I can get used to people dumping their leftovers onto their own street in front of my eyes." - anonymous
13 comments:
Wow seems, so many places in Queens are turning into Jamaica. So theis major garbage problem is just not a Jamaica thing.
Sounds like someone needs to start a "Clean Up Astoria".
This is what happens when you do everything you can to rid a community of owner occupied housing and long term residents that have a vested interest in keeping it clean. Sure removing people that bitch about quality of life to their councilman makes a pol's life easier, but this is what happens.
Look at CALDC, an organization that is responsible for keeping our shopping areas vibrant. They took tens of thousands of dollars meant for community programs and invested it in a 6 figure deal for real estate for a luxury office deuplex. What would have happened if they took that money for cleaning the shopping areas and rented cheaper space? Astoria shopping is a pig sty with stickers and garbage everywhere.
What happened to anti-litter campaigns? Are the tweeders afraid it would offend new Americans? Generally speaking, Third World types have differing cleanliness standards than residents whose families have been here for a few generations.
Finally, we are ignoring all the principles of good urban design so the pols have campaign donations. We use to live on a block that had manufacturing in the area. Now we are surrounded by stores courtesy of developers. Shoppers leave litter and garbage everywhere. A sidewalk clean for a week now is filthy in a day.
Finally we are bringing more and more people into an area with no thought on infrastructure support. If you do not build schools, hospitals or transit you sure the hell don't do anything on sanitation.
Apply a litter tax to fast food eateries, 7-11's , bodegas, new stands, and the like.
Take a walk down a filthy street and I guarantee that a good 90% of the litter that you see are products sold at these businesses.
Household refuse is a separate matter.
Where is DSNY enforcement? Didn't they recently add more inspectors / "superintendents"???
Anon. re litter tax: you're right about the source - the gutter around my house becomes an advertisement fror 7-11, Dunkin Donuts, and Drake's Cakes within an hour of cleaning. Not so sure how a tax would work - .05 deposit on wrappers? 'cause you KNOW it won't be dedicated to sanitation. As to "Third World" - well, "my" trash is all from white EMTs and Russian construction workers. Shakespeare is usually not considered in the context of Third World social structures - here's a glimpse of his Elizabethan London: "tenants would throw buckets of waste off of their balconies onto the streets/gutters. Open sewage led to many plagues and deaths. Bodies, at least, were usually buried (Bring out your dead!)
DSNY enforcement? only applies to homeowners... If you ask about this sort of crap, you will be told they lack personnel.
The whole enforcement issue with DOS is a mess, it is just not being carried out and there are certainly no anti-litter campaigns that I am aware of. While I love to blame all the trash on the low-class third world people, it is not just them, it is others as well, though I have to agree with the one individual that certain third world people (Pakistan, Bengali, etc) have lower cleanliness standards).
No doubt that much of the litter problems deal with fast food and deli's. This is the issue when you have people take food out of a place to eat in public.
Bottom line, major enforcement is needed in this city and it does not exist unlike in other cities and states.
The northwest corner of the intersection of 31st St. and 30th Ave. is always a mess too, with even more litter all over the street than the shopping center shown in this post.
30th Avenue is a mess with over-development and all those cafes.
There was a time when it actually served the needs of the local community.
But then, again, since the locals stood on the steps of City Hall cause they were "saved" what is the issue?
Is it "saved" FROM what or "saved" FOR what?
C.A.L.D.C. - isn't that run by Van Bamer's buddy Stamatiades?
Big honcho in CB1 (the community board from hell?)
The colorful character that ran around embarrassing all the other civics in NYC. Remember his stunt as the head of Dutch Kills Civic, when he went on record as being the only civic in the city that demanded an "Upzone!" for his community? That community, my friends, really loved it when, in front of the cameras, he acted surprised and wept crocodile tears when dozens of hotels filled his wish?
The same Millstones-Just-Rocks Stamatiades?
Now THERE is resume that justifies good and liberal funding from our tax dollars.
At least Astoria has paper on its sidewalks. Dutch Kills has junked cars on ours.
Another disgusting area of queens....Looks like what flushing looks like!! Why are home prices in queens so much money again when all we get is garbage that moves into nyc?
I lived in Maryland and I definitely want to move back!! You should see Maryland's suburbs!! They are pretty clean and they have nice land, not to mention, their unemployment rate is low, their home prices are affordable and you don't get garbage moving into the neighborhoods! Also they have the highest median income rate as any state going!!
We need to start deporting the garbage that moved into Queens and allow actual Americans to build up the queens neighborhoods again, it time they started giving new yorkers better home prices and first home picks. I don't think its fair that native new yorkers should have to fight for housing against a bunch of illegals, foreigners or out if towners.
The difference between Maryland and Queens is that the electorate is engaged and the pols have a bit more voltage between the ears.
Sure they attract illegals like honey does flies (and among the dirtiest places are shape-up areas that they refuse to touch),
but if they stopped giving tax abatements to every bum that gives them a donation we might have some money to clean up
, and we stopped giving them a pass for shoehorning more and more people into a community without doing anything about the infrastructure,
this is what you get.
Yes people its our pols fault and our fault for letting our pols get away with murder.
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