Bushwick’s Logic-Challenged Litter Gestapo
I swept in front of the house Saturday morning, and then went to the Fortunata’s Bumrush. When I got home 4 hours later, there was a fresh accumulation of litter behind my fence and a notice of violation from the Environmental Control Board. Luis snatched it off the gate — “Are you fucking kidding me?” — and handed it to me. I am constantly fighting the waves of random trash that plague my street. Most days, sweeping once a day is enough, but sometimes the trash is relentless.
There’s something really perverse about ticketing property owners without bothering to use common sense. Overflowing trash cans with no lids are an obvious problem, and I can understand a citation in that case. A few scraps of trash on the ground right near my trash cans with their lids snapped on tight, arranged in such a way that it is obvious to anyone who uses their rational faculties for a split second that it was blown in from outside, is not grounds for a violation. Not a single scrap of trash in front of my house was generated in my house. Fining me for not being fast enough with the broom is punishing the victim. It’s like prosecuting a rape victim for public lewdness.
A guy who has owned a house around the corner for 15 years told me they once fined him for a single piece of paper in the gutter. When he went to court to appeal, they told him that if he loses, he has to pay $300 instead of $100. Not being a gambling man, he paid the $100 fine. I wasn’t planning on appealing, but then I remembered that we have a copy of a dismissal of a similar fine won by the previous owners of our place last year. They swept twice a day and still got a violation, which was overturned by a reasonable judge. I figured I’d send a copy of that in with my own letter explaining the situation: that it is impossible to keep the front of the house litter-free at all times, especially on such a high-traffic street.
It’s clear that sanitation cops are not interested in what’s fair or what’s logical — salaries have to get paid and positions have to be justified, after all, and slapping fines with a pain-in-the-ass appeal process on homeowners is a great way to get that money flowing in.
October 8th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
christ, that’s a huge fine! fight the power jeremy!
October 8th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Fight it dood. Quota in action right there. I hope you took pictures of the offending litter?
We got a fine a few months back, same situation of blown in debris, but honestly it was way out of control and had I woken up early enough I would have walked out, laughed at the chaos and cleaned it up. instead, I slept in and was fined for piles of circulars that had blown in and collected in my gate overnight and during the morning.
Oh well. There was no fighting the majesty of the blown debris in my case. But I’m guessing you were not so deluged with paper and wrappers, just enough to grab the attention of a city worker trolling for bait on their quota day.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I got one of those $100/$300 fines last year late August (just before school began) in Cypress Hills. I asked the judge why such hefty fines for candy wrappers, and why did they not mention the supermarket flyers on the ticket(they cannot fine you for these because that’s not your fault!!!!). I cleaned my sidewalk daily, and watched the sweeper trucks blow the trash right back onto the sidewalk. Besides I lived between two schools (PS 171 and an Elementary school on Jamaica Avenue). My question to the judge was why there were no public trash cans with so many children passing on their way to/from school. The judge’s reply was that people misuse them - she had an answer for everything. They even fined a blind man - he was sitting in front of me in the waiting room yapping on his cell-phone about his lost black cat and that it cost him $50.00 just to get here. A guard led him to a chair and then they just forgot about him, not even giving him preferential treatment. I was wondering who the hell was blind here. I paid the fine a couple months later, I did not want to pursue this matter further but I made the judge feel uncomfortable.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Jeremy, Are you renting the Apt? or own it. I really do not know your housing situation, you mentioned before about Section 8 and whatever… As for the fine, are you responsible? or the owner of the building’s? It is time for you to have a building meeting for this and underware/condom issue rather thatn talking about it with people here! But, thank you, I am learning a lot from your stories in the blog in many ways for my new life in Bushwick.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am
does it matter to the city if the litter is ‘yours’ or not? i thought it was all based on the property lines, so if your neighbor is a slob and his trash falls onto your sidewalk, you’re still legally responsible (correct me if i’m wrong).
and yes, i hope you got photos of the litter, i’d love to see what constitutes a $100 fine. did anybody else get fined on the block? cuz, you know, i’m sure only your stoop had any garbage on it.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:47 am
They went on a neighborhood-wide rampage. Almost every building had a ticket.
October 9th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Then, a neighborhood-wide meeting needs to be held.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Too bad this struggle can fall into the public advocates office. You shouldn’t be responsible for other people’s garbage, especially when you are doing your part to prevent it from blowing on someone else’s lawn. the problem is often too many slumlords, which don’t visit the properties or take care of them. How many landlords do you see go to their properties if they aren’t living their especially.
We try to remedy the situation with requests for public trash cans, and the city and everyone else we’ve asked them for has rejected them.
How do we encourage kids who often go to the bodegas throughout the day not to throw their wrappers on the sidewalks.
The owners of the building are responsible, although I’m not sure how the city handles joint ownership of a property - perhaps the fine is levied on both. Some landlords will ask the tenants to pay for the ticket if they feel they are responsible.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
[…] week. My tree pit is a magnet for condiment packages, tissues, and of course, dog shit. In October, I got a $100 litter ticket on a Saturday afternoon, just hours after I had actually done one of my full sweeps. Despite an experienced […]