Here’s a story you won’t bristle at.
A dozen proud Ridgites spent their Saturday sweeping Bay Ridge Avenue on Sept. 19. One couple who happened to see the effort and couldn’t resist lending a hand swept one organizer off his feet, he said.
“There were a few community members that saw us working, and they came out of their homes with their own brooms and just decided to help — that was really motivating,” said Yahya Khatari, an aide to Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) who helped organize the cleanup.
Grabbing a broom and rolling up his sleeves was a no-brainer, one of the impromptu assistants said.
“I want to keep the neighborhood clean, so I figured we’d come out and clean it together,” said Ninh Luc, who lives on the avenue between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
All told, the group collected about 10 bags of trash between Third and Seventh avenues, Khatari said. The sanitation department lent brooms, shovels, garbage bags, and gloves to volunteers, and it picked up the filled bags as workers progressed down the street, he said.
Mostly, they collected leaves and litter, but the volunteers also took some larger trash off the streets, Khatari said.
“We found some plywood that was in pretty big pieces on the street,” he said.
