City Council’s $5.3 Cleanup NYC Initiative Hits Brooklyn’s Main Streets
Councilman Mark Treyger joined Assemblyman William Colton to announce the allocation of more than $130,000 to clean three southern Brooklyn main streets today.
The roads to get scrubbed down are 86th Street in Bensonhurst, Avenue U in Gravesend, and Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, thanks to funding secured through City Council’s Cleanup NYC Initiative, which has been allocated $5.3 million in the 2016 fiscal budget.
“Cleanliness is one of the top neighborhood complaints my staff and I receive, and to be able to directly respond to that by beautifying our neighborhood with scheduled cleanups is something we can all be proud of,” said Treyger. “This is a win-win for both residents and small businesses, which rely on clean and attractive commercial corridors that are enticing for potential customers.”
NYC Cleanup promotes cleaner streets in New York City by providing each City Council district with an allocation to fund cleaning services including, but not limited to, street sweeping, litter pickup, and graffiti removal.
Cleaning services will take place four times a week on 86th Street, between 18th and 26th Avenues; and three times a week on Avenue U, between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway. Cleaning on Mermaid Avenue, between Stillwell Avenue and West 33rd Street, will take place on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Additional funds were allocated for cleaning along 18th Avenue one day a week.
This service compliments the scheduled cleaning of Surf Avenue, funded by the Alliance for Coney Island. The pols were joined by representatives from the Doe Fund today, which will supply man power to pick up trash on the designated streets.
Merchants who have stores on the busy Bensonhurst corridors also praised the initiative, including the owners of Lenny’s Pizza and Istanbul.
“I am really happy that 86th Street will finally be clean and safe for the entire community. It has been a long time that we have waited for this, and we are all very excited about this,” said Josephine Giordano of Lenny’s Pizza.
In Councilman David Greenfield’s district, which includes Borough Park and Midwood, the following streets are slated for cleaning: 16th Avenue, between 44th Street and 54th Street; Avenue J, between East 10th Street and East 18th Street; Coney Island Avenue, from Avenue I to Avenue K; Avenue M, between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway; and Kings Highway, between McDonald and Ocean Parkway.
“One of the top complaints that I get is about dirty streets. Our district is one of the most beautiful in the city — our streets should be too. Thanks to this new program, our major avenues will now be much cleaner,” said Greenfield.