KWT Perspective: The Fight To Improve Conditions At Local Vacant Lots

The inaugural KWT Perspective comes to us from neighbor Michele Israel, who’s been trying for years to get issues at two local vacant lots resolved. You can read about her hard work below, and chime in with suggestions for how else she might successfully approach the problem.

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There are two empty local lots that are disastrous. One is 716 Ditmas Avenue — this one has been problematic for a long, long time, and is filled with construction debris, broken glass, lumber… you name it. It sits between two private homes, the trash flowing onto the respective properties.

The house to the right of it (if you are facing the street from the lot) has many children living next to it. It has now become a regular dumping ground for people unloading their junk. It is completely open to the street. I don’t get it. How can that possibly escape DSNY oversight?

The other lot is at 592 E 7th Street. This one has been also problematic for a number of years. Complaints to past owners, real estate agents, and the city have led to clean ups, but are still addressed in poor ways — once the guys cleaned up and then left all of the trash bags on the lot, and now these are torn apart). The last real estate agent did try to get the then owner to clean up, but with no success. It seems there is a new owner now.

Part of the challenge is that there is a fence around it, making it hard for the DSNY to intervene. That fence, however, is coming apart, falling down, so the lot is quite visible to the street. It is now filled with trash, garbage, tires… people just dump in there. What makes this worse is just recently, a DOH rodent trap was placed in front of the lot. Yeah, that means rats. And of course there would be, given the lot’s condition. Keep in mind that the lot sits between two residential homes, both with children.

There’s more! Because it’s a lot that no one takes care of, some company keeps unloading an illegal clothes collection container in front of it. People dump their clothes, and then when there is no more room, they leave them on the sidewalk — and that invites other people to dump other items. So, the sidewalk in front of the lot is disgusting.

My efforts to get these lots addressed span cumulatively almost two years. I have:

Contacted 311 multiple times. In fact, a very nice Brooklyn DSNY rep always calls me… he says they are on it, and explains why there are delays. For example, right after I talked to him, a pick-up sticker was on the clothing bin. In the time that it was scheduled for pick up, another clothing bin replaced it. The rep explained that it takes 30 days or so with the lots, but, when I checked the status of the cases I had submitted, it said the cases have been addressed and are closed. What does that mean? Because if ‘closed’ means something was done, then… well, you get the point.

I reached out to Community Board 12. There is a wonderful woman there who always helps me — Ann Marie Honan. She sent my original request to the Brooklyn DSNY rep (Mike McEvoy) and Wolf Sender. When nothing happened, I was told that that DSNY would take a look to determine whether these lots needed attention. Whether they need attention?

I recently reached out to Jim Brennan’s office, and was told that they will look into it.

I figure the more people I tell about this, the more likely something will be done. I think what is most disturbing is that these are clear health hazards and obvious dangers, and yet they are not a priority. This side of the neighborhood is bad news all the way around in terms of trash, empty lots, etc. It’s really disheartening that even people on the block don’t clean up their front yards. I can’t change that, but these lots must be addressed.

All photos by Michele Israel