It would be nice if this sanitation enforcement division would make it to enforce the recycling measures at my building. At my 12-unit coop building recycling is an obscure concept for the majority of the residents. When I worked the trash there I had to sort out what people didn’t want to sort out, which caused me to do additional work I wasn’t paid to do, which in turn forced me to cut from other work in order to make up for it. I told the people what they needed to do, but they always insisted, they would employ scammer's arguments and say things like “Why I need to recycle if nobody else recycles?” or say “sure. ok”, but continue mixing everything up. The majority of the people who don’t want to follow the recycling rules, and don’t care about the environment in general, also want to have children. For what, I ask myself, so that their children may inherit the filth? The current management doesn’t sort out what the residents mix and pretend to be following the recycling rules. Investors, instead of providing real benefits, like providing a working a/c, working windows, vermin free living, unclogged drains, provide a cheap apparent benefit to their sub-tenants by saying to them “at this building you have the luxury benefit of not having to follow the recycling rules” to entice the prospective sub-tenants to rent the units. The sanitation department cannot make it to inspect what is happening when you report it. Enforcement is desperately needed at this co-op.
The city does need to focus on animal owners. Far too often, people are ignoring laws that protect the public. I had to help my elderly neighbor who was knocked down and seriously hurt by an unleashed "friendly" dog. If a pet owner cannot follow laws, then it is fair to assume that they may not be able to properly train their pets.
As to the minefield of dog feces that are on the sidewalks in some areas - if you have a dog, you have to clean up after it regardless of snow, heat or any other kind of weather. If you choose to own a dog, choose to live among people, and choose to live in an area with 4 distinct seasons, you still have to properly take care of your animal's waste at all times.
Finally, animal restrictions in places such as public transportation and restaurants are the result of a baseline of owners. As long as there are bad owners, it is necessary for the city to stop people from taking their animals (outside legitimate service animals) into certain situations. I cannot tell by looking at you if you are a good owner or a bad owner, but if the only evidence I have to go on is your inability to follow the law, then the evidence weighs against you.
I do think that we turn a blind eye to issues that fall under "quality of life", and are critical when enforced. I understand the need for skepticism, as these laws tend to unfairly target specific communities. Watch an 80+ yr old woman crying in agony because an owner broke leash laws, and you will see the need.
3
I feel much safer knowing that they are carrying guns.
Our compassionate mayor promised that violations like public urination were no longer going to be ticketable. As usual, the NYPD ignores anything he or the City Council order and continues to be a law (or lawless, frequently) unto themselves. Half a million summonses. For mostly ridiculous "infractions" like gum wrappers and leaves on the sidewalk. $$$
2
I had an awful experience with a Department of Sanitation inspector about 20 years ago not too long after NYC began serious recycling. I was putting out my old newspapers in a clear blue plastic bag (those are the only clear bags I had on hand). The inspector happened to be nearby and wanted to give me a ticket for using a clear blue bag rather than a clear bag with no color. What? He obviously had a ticket quota to fill, or was just using his power to intimidate me. I sure hope that the culture of these inspectors has changed since.
4
Sanitation needs to do what it does best -- pick up the trash. The effort, time, cost and citizen harassment need to go away. Just imagine how much the City would save by not having sanitation cops? Why do we need them when we already have a police force? Oh, the regular cops won't do their job and enforce the law? Jeez Louise!
3
Chicago has declared dog waste
a biohazard and there are signs to that effect everywhere in the
city. The signs also include the facts that dog waste attracts rats
that eat it and dog waste provides
no nutritive value to plants (quite the opposite).
Here in Oakland I have neighbors that see no problem in allowing
their cats outside in order to use
any yard as a litter box. So much
fun for everyone! Even the rats wont eat cat poop.
I hate animal owners. They tend not to know anything about animals.
These officers would be far more useful enforcing quality of life laws such as speeding, horn-blowing and walking a husband off his leash.
2
Or how about enforcement of the laws regarding bike riders. Daily they run lights and/or ride in the opposite direction than traffic. Never have I once seen one of these lawbreakers get a ticket.
4
i'm particularly amused by the adult bicyclists, with helmets, riding on sidewalks!
1
Can someone send a sanitation official to clean up the deer feces that covers my lawn? Deer tick-transmitted diseases are no joke.
I'd like the feces tested for Lyme Disease, Babesiosis, and other diseases that deer are vectors in the infection of people.
Deer might not get ill, but humans do.
A single tick can carry multiple diseases that can disable people. And no, not every infection is recognized and treated with antibiotics.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0099348
1
There is already a sanitation worker at every house in America. The sanitation worker is the person who resides in the house. This is one of the main problems with trash. Everybody thinks it someone else's job to pick it up.
7
Yes!! This is the main problem, In my opinion...
I have been complaining to the city about a few businesses on my block that never pick up the trash in front of and around their property. My other neighbors and I have given up trying to explain that it is their responsibility.
One said if he leaves it all there long enough it will blow away or we’ll clean it for him—if it bothers us so much. So mainly people are just pigs. Oh...And no sanitation officer in sight.
I can tell you the Enforcement Officers of the Department of Sanitation are nowhere to be seen in my UES neighborhood. My block is covered in dog poop, litter and rodents. I have made countless complaints to 311 and also to Ben Kallos's office. 311 closes out the complaints and claims that the inspectors can't find the problem. Hmmm.... maybe if they set foot on the block?
9
Reducing the human population of the big apple core would work wonders for sanitation.
6
What a total racket!
My house is on a quiet residential street in Hamilton Heights. Technically, it's my responsibility to keep the sidewalks and the street up to 18inches from the curb free of litter. Of course I do all I can to meet these requirements but there is no way I can patrol all day long, day in and day out, to ensure everyone who walks by my house doesn't litter or drop non-recyclables in the recycling bin.
I've gotten tickets for:
1. Candy wrapper on the sidewalk (snickers fun size; no joke)
2. Someone's unfinished lunch in my recycling bin
3. Leaves on the sidewalk in the fall.
The sick part is that both the the major thoroughfare just one block north of me and the the same street one block east are absolutely filthy and disgusting.
What's the difference? Why don't they get ticketed? Because those streets are full of section 8 housing and absentee landlords. They don't pay tickets even when they get them. My conscientious neighbors and I constantly get penalized for ridiculous "infractions" because we're good citizens and pay on time.
19
These people writing summons are trying to make their quotas. I guess the city makes some money, but in the end it may be counter productive. One such person gave a ticket to a homeowner I know because the homeowner placed his recyles out on the curb a few minutes before the officially permissible time. The ticket goons are waiting for such mistakes, and he got a summons and paid a fine. Congratulations. He doesn't recycle at all now and throws his recyles out with the ordinary trash. GREAT RESULT!
12
We received a fine because when our recycling was out waiting for collection, someone threw open trash in it. However, we have a serial dog poop leaver on our block who seems free to continue. It’s obviously a very large dog, or multiple dogs. The owner’s “system” is to let the dog poop on the sidewalk right outside the driver’s side door of cars and also right outside the passenger doors in the road. By the end of the week there are about 10 leavings up and down our small one-way block. Very pleasant!
8
Dog poop DNA. Seriously--no joke. See below how one apartment complex in Virginia is encouraging its residents to clean up after their pets. Ok, forcing them really. But sometimes it gets to that point. I live in a relatively upscale neighborhood here in Connecticut and I am appalled at how many people in our lovely development let their dogs defecate anywhere they want. Our neighborhood association sent out numerous kind reminders of our responsibility then ultimately installed dog waste stations with bags and bins. Did this help? Barely, we still have to dodge droppings on our neighborhood walking paths because our lazy neighbors can't be bothered. We go out a bit after dark and we risk messy smelly shoes when we get home. Largely I think it's an attitude of entitlement that I've seen over and over here (like people constantly running red lights--they're in a hurry and can't be bothered to stop) and frankly sometimes you gotta take desperate measures like red light cameras (that I would surprisingly support) or dog-poop-DNA to get people to simply take responsibility for what the rest of us law-abiding responsible adults have no problem doing. Boy, it sure felt good to vent that out.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/montgomery_county/montgomery-county-co...
10
Great comment that needed be stated- "If your doggy dodos, you, the owner scoops it up". Spread the word. Yes, there is a whole new generation of youth and others who have not heard of First Lady Bird Johnsons campaign of "Keep America Beautiful". We need to bring it back on across America in full force. The middle class is shrinking. Unfortunately, struggling families and others are eating using corporate wrapped food packages. Those empty packages are littering our earth. The wrappers are a blight in our communities, right up there with graffitti and dog poop.Let's start an anti-litter campaign at the resident level here and now! Anti-Litter people unite.
8
Good for them. Now if they can do something about the the overwhelming stench of dog urine that will be with us now that the warm weather is upon us. Building staffs do a great job trying to hose down and deodorize the sidewalks but the task proves impossible. I know the city is trying to deal with the number of cars via congestion pricing. How about raising the fee for a dog license and or permit and dedicate the money to addressing this issue.
11
Is "curbing your dog" still a law in NYC? If so, I wish our sanitation officers would start handing out summons to people who let their dogs do their business on the sidewalk.
There has been a major increase in dog ownership and the amount of pee and poop on the streets in my Brooklyn neighborhood is untenable. One block at any one time have five to six urine streams and puddles, four or more poop stains or special nuggets spread down the street by an unfortunate pedestrian. Our sidewalks should not a giant pet latrine.
Let's not forget the people who let their pets use the tree pits, which building owners are legally responsible for upkeep. Leaving their dog poop in pit as "fertilizer" and dog urine kills trees and plants alike.
It smells, its unhygienic and given the increase of families staying in NYC, an increased number little kids running and falling down in it. Gross.
19
This is exactly what all US cities need: oversight of litterbugs, scoop-up your dogs poop, and mandatory recycling. Litter (corporate wrappers, drink containers, cigarette butts galore, etc) are a big part of the "uglification" of our landscape....EVERYWHERE! Everyone litters as there are both intentional (litterbugs) and accidental litter. Accidental litter is: tissues that fall from the pocket, wind blown trash from garbage cans, and scavenger birds who take items out of the trash. I see trash everywhere. It is piling up in our cities and elsewhere. On my daily dog walks in the beautiful waterfront parks of Tacoma, WA, I have chosen to pick-up trash in my community as a volunteer service. I also help organize community clean-ups through nextdoor.com. Yes, I do wear disposable gloves and use a Litter Grabber stick. Lets hear it for the Swedish anti-litter trend of Plogging and Plaking! A movement where runners and walkers and dog walkers pick-up trash while they are outside enjoying our great, but littered, outdoors. Bring on the tickets and warnings to all litterbugs. They are helping to foul our communities.
23
Most people in NYC seem to be picking up after their dogs. Good! Having just had a nice lunch on 'Arthur Avenue,' and then walking back to my car, I'd suggest those officers might want to patrol that area next
7
TOP O' THE HEAP
Earmark this pile o' junk for the city dump:
Donald “I alone can fix it” Trump.
8
I have never seen DSNY officers issue tickets to homeowners in my neighborhood. But they frequently ticket merchants on the New Dorp Lane commercial area for dirty curbs and sidewalks.
NYC street cleanliness ratings - https://www1.nyc.gov/site/operations/performance/scorecard-street-sidewa...
3
AT LEASH'S END
You've seen the joggers and runners
As they prance with their dogs behind them,
Convinced they're exercising
The hounds--"They love it, don't mind them."
And you may have also noted
The dogs are being dragged,
Which leads to the angry hope
The draggers'll be bound and gagged..
Not so with Bandy, my terrier,
A top dog, that fine fellow,
Who runs as he wishes wherever,
And I--leashed--follow.
5
"Throughout the evening shift, we witnessed plenty of New Yorkers breaking sanitation laws, though some, out of necessity, got a pass. As we sat in traffic, a man in a motorized wheelchair passed by and tossed out an empty pack of cigarettes."
So because this guy was in a wheelchair he doesn't get a summons for littering?
25
You got it.
1
If the city took away the Sanitation Police's ticket book and armed them with a broom, the city would be a much cleaner place. But what's the profit in that?
9
That is how the clean cities of Europe do it. I just got back from Vienna and Budapest. They have sanitation workers pusing carts, emptying city sidewalk cans, and sweeping sidewalks. And more importantly, their citizens, most of the times, use the plentiful supply of garbage cans provided by the city on the urban sidewalks to dispose of both their trash and cigarette butts. The US is getting more littered with corporate trash every day. We are drowning in ugly trash on land and at sea.
7
What would paying someone else to clean up YOUR litter do to deter you from littering?
This is just like police officers issuing speeding tickets. It deters "special people" who think the laws do not apply to them.
5
It would probably be a lot cheaper to have more broom pushers, for no doubt suddenly calling garbage men cops so they can arrest someone for putting a piece of trash in the wrong bin, will "need" the same pay and pensions "real" cops do. Yes, people should obey the law, but the city totally expects things to clean up themselves apparently.
4
Why did the person in the wheelchair get a pass for littering (dropping an empty cigarette pack)?
21
Because he was in a wheelchair.
7
Sanitation citations are nothing but a racket. They over-patrol and over ticket affluent streets; it's about making money not keeping the city clean.
12
They have to use discretion: which means they can ticket me at home for the trash someone throws into my recycle bin because my home in in one spot, but they can't ticket the guy in the car who throws the cigarette pack on my street because they would have to follow and stop him.
14
Obey the law and you do not have worry about being issued a ticket. That would put an end to any alleged "racket."
3
As I read the article and comments, there is ample evidence that tickets are going to people on the receiving end of other people's careless disposals, not the perps.
4
“So as spring finally arrives for good this week, we’d like to hear from these folks: What is it about a temperate, sunny day that you dislike?”
tune of “Sesame Street”
Sunny day
We're at the start of May
And I pray the climate stays this sweet
When it’s mild and I don’t sweat -
I don’t sweat the temperate heat.
Matinee
Every play on Broadway
Makes you line up before you take your seat
While it’s pleasant and not wet
We don’t sweat the temperate heat
While we get the temperate heat.
12
Perhaps these gentlemen could widen their patrol area. They could spend some time on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC. I have heard many complaints of a dangerous and mangy dog running around, off leash, growling and snarling at people and defecating wherever he wants and his owners are guilty of not cleaning up after him.
34
There is a public housing project on 94th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues that does not recycle waste and leaves garbage strewn around the street. Despite numerous calls to 911, the problem persists. It appears that law only applies to those who can pay the fine.
18
Try calling 311 (or use the 311 website) instead of 911. 911 is meant for emergencies, not complaints.
9
Give that info to your councilmember.
5
That was a typo. We did call 311 on two occasions.
3
The over-zealousness of the Sanitation Department is one factor that determined me to leave New York.
Our building was being ticketed for having one scrap of paper lying in the street, when it was impossible for us to watch the street all day long against passersby dropping litter.
This happened often enough and was enforced with $100 fines, despite pleas to the Department to be more reasonable, to sour me against sanitation cops.
21
Tune of Fascinatin’ Rhythm - apologies to the Gershwins, but it’s for public awareness
(My sweet little dog reacts)
Public urination
I know it’s got to go
Folks from Sanitation
Are in a tizzy
With each violation
They’re running to and fro
Get the information
They’re far too busy
Oh how I’m glad they’re here,
But please hear my plea:
Folks from Sanitation
Just don’t go picking on me
14