Gentile Works Out Deal To Get More Garbage Pickups, Quaglione Sees Effort As Purely Political

Councilman Vincent Gentile announced a deal with the Department of Sanitation that brings back second basket garbage pickups 4-days a week along Bensonhurst’s and Bay Ridge’s busiest streets. In a press release, Gentile hailed the deal as a victory to improve the quality of life for residents, but John Quaglione, a Republican looking to  take the City Council seat in this year’s election, issued a statement claiming that the deal was purely political.

Gentile was proud of the deal, expressing hope that the increased pickups will limit the amount of overflowing bins present on city blocks.

“I’m pleased to announce that I have successfully brokered a deal to bring back second basket garbage pick-ups 4-days a week along some of our busiest commercial thoroughfares across Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. We are lucky enough to have several thriving business corridors in our area and they all require attention. Now from Third Avenue to 13th Avenue and everything in between, especially on the weekends, these baskets will be picked up much more frequently,” Gentile said in a release.

Here is a list of  streets and dates on which the extra pickups will occur:

The following corridors will have extra garbage pickups on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday:

• Third Avenue between from 69th Street to 101st Street
• Bay Ridge Avenue between Ridge Boulevard to Fifth Avenue
• 13th Avenue from 65th Street to 79th Street
• Fifth Avenue from 88th Street to 92nd Street

Councilman Domenic Recchia, who is running for Michael Grimm’s congressional seat and serves as the City Council Finance Chair, helped negotiate the agreement with Gentile.

“I know residents and business owners in the area will welcome the cleaner streets this level of service will bring. It’s time to say goodbye to overflowing baskets along the avenues,” Recchia said. “I was happy to work with Councilman Gentile to make this happen for the people of south Brooklyn.”

Not everyone was impressed with the work of Gentile and Recchia. Quaglione who accused Gentile camp of playing politics with quality of life issues.

“There is no one more than me that believes the reinstatement of this additional basket pick up is critical to our quality of life. However, I am appalled that only now, in an election year, as this is a concern I have been raising speaking to voters in our district, has the City Council finally acted so to re-implement this quality of life measure,” Quaglione said in a release. “I am confident that if Councilman Gentile was not running for a third term this year, despite having voted against them, the garbage pails would continue to overflow, litter our streets, and destroy the local shopping districts. There is no denying that this issue has been facing us for many years.”

Justin Brannan, the communications director for Gentile, dismissed the criticism in a statement to Bensonhurst Bean.

“Councilman Gentile has been working on this issue for a very long time. The community came to Gentile about this issue and he was able to deliver a solution – the same goes for the restoration of the B37 and the recent raid and closure of several illegal massage parlors. Gentile has a long record of taking action and getting results and it’s a record he is very proud of,” Brannan said.