Councilman David G. Greenfield has brokered an agreement between city Department of Sanitation officials and residents of 51st Street that will allow for the continuation of trash collection from the rear alley behind the homes, an arrangement the residents have enjoyed for nearly 100 years due to the unusually narrow sidewalks on 51st Street.
For decades, about 60 houses, three apartment buildings and one large yeshiva on 51st Street between 19th and 20th avenues in Borough Park have used the rear alley for residential trash and recycling collection. City trash crews historically have accommodated this arrangement, which is necessary due to the extremely narrow sidewalks and pedestrian access along 51st Street. This setup helped keep the sidewalks clear and litter free and reduced the amount of Sanitation trucks on local streets, which is a major issue in traffic-choked Borough Park.
However, earlier this year Sanitation officials informed residents with little warning that they would no longer allow residents to place their trash in the rear alley. The residents immediately reached out to Greenfield who stepped in to try and broker a deal. Greenfield arranged for a series of meetings involving Sanitation officials Deputy Commissioner Maria Termini, Chief of Collections Peter McKeon, Borough Chief Myron Priester, Chief of Safety Steven Harbin, Director of Government Relations Henry Ehrhardt and Deputy Chief Steve Montanino, and residents. Eventually, the city agreed that the rear-alley collection can continue as long as several conditions are met, including that potholes are filled in and low-hanging tree limbs and trimmed.
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4 Responses
Thank you to our hard working councilman David Greenfield, and to our dear friends and neighbors, Moshe Dovid Friedlander and Moshe Fink, who worked so hard from beginning to end.
my hero!!
The sanitation department are worth their money!
It’s obvious that there are blocks that are taken care of all the time and some none of the time.
We moved from one to the other!
Our previous block was the chosen one not to have pickup on the next Tuesday following a Monday holiday 99.99% of the time.
Now we live on a block full of WHO WHOSE and the minute the clock strikes 12:00 A.M. on pickup days the sounds of the sanitation trucks can be heard and yes, one side gets this special treatment. The other side gets a later pickup or no pickup as happened this week due to Martin Luther King holiday. The WHO WHOSE side did get pickup at the strike of midnight!
Dear #3 either it is when the clock stikes 12, or at the stoke of midnight. I never heard of the strike that happened at midnight , unless you are talking about some sort of invasion