Diary Of Neglect: One Corner On Church Avenue

Sarah Crean -
Photo taken by reader in late February of what appears to be illegal trash dumping at the corner of Buckingham Road (East 16th Street) and Church Avenue.

UPDATE: Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins told us this morning that “the condition” at the northwest corner of Buckingham Road and Church Avenue was removed by DSNY last night. “Prior to this,” Dawkins noted, “we did not receive any complaints about this location, however, the Department will monitor the area.” [3/4/16, 10:15am]

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Recently we reported that Church Avenue will be one of six New York City commercial corridors targeted by the de Blasio administration’s CleaNYC initiative.

As part of CleaNYC, we should be seeing the expansion of Sunday and holiday litter basket collection service, additional highway shoulder and ramp cleanup (think of the entrance to the Prospect Expressway), stepped up anti-graffiti efforts, and sidewalk power washing on streets like Church Avenue, the City said.

There were many interesting responses from readers to our story. A question that several had was whether all of Church Avenue will be covered by the new initiative. A spokeswoman for the Department of Sanitation, Kathy Dawkins, told us that the DSNY is “still evaluating what areas along Church Avenue” will be included.

We also shared photos with Dawkins and the DSNY that were taken by a Ditmas Park Corner reader showing repeated dumping of large bags of trash and items like mattresses next to a waste can at the northwest corner of Buckingham Road (East 16th Street) and Church Avenue.

The reader reports that he sees dumping of this type on an almost daily basis at this corner. We have posted the photos sent by the reader below, along with his captions.

We encourage you to send us similar photos of areas where trash appears to be left illegally, and which require more attention from the DSNY.

We will report back if we receive any information from the DSNY about what is happening at this corner on Church Avenue.

POSTED 3/2/16: “Tuesday 03/01/16 garbage dump. To be fair, the white bag on the right is a DOE project garbage bag. They are supposed to collect garbage. But the other side would be a sanitation ticket if they could be bothered.”
POSTED 3/1/16: “Interesting, this mattress seems to match one thrown out earlier in the week. Perhaps this is industrial. This is Mondays garbage dump.”
POSTED 2/28/16: “What I can’t understand is how, since this is happening EVERY DAY, the Sanitation Police can’t generate one ticket on this corner. Sunday’s garbage pictured.”
POSTED 2/28/16: “Nothing special to report. Just another day of dumping on the corner of Church Ave and Buckingham.
POSTED 2/28/16: “Just a bag of industrial kitchen utensils this morning. Wed.”
POSTED 2/24/16: “It was good to see the rain did not stop our dumpers. They know a good deal when they see it. Here is Tuesdays (02/23/16) garbage on the corner of East 16th and Church”
POSTED 2/22/16: “Perhaps if I continue posting the photos of the daily dumping on the corner of Buckingham and Church Ave, as it really is every day, it will inspire some action on the part of Sanitation who claims they are focusing on Church Ave. Above was Sundays. It was all picked up Monday morning. Here is Mondays evenings garbage pile.”
POSTED 2/21/16: “It seems the sanitation police have lost interest in this corner. Perhaps I can help them focus on it by posting pictures of regular dumping that happens there. (corner of Buckingham and Church) Here is today’s photos. I guess I appreciate that the dumpers took care to leave the actual garbage can empty for the rest of us to use.”