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Ridgites: Don’t kick the can!

Ridgites: Don’t kick the can!
Photo by Michelle Minetti

The city is seriously considering removing public trash cans from three commercial street corners — but some Bay Ridge residents think the plan will make the neighborhood even dirtier than it already is.

Community Board 10 voted last April to remove the cans from the corners of Fourth and Ovington avenues, Fourth Avenue and 68th Street and Fourth Avenue and 69th Street because the bins there have become garbage magnets — and inevitably overflow when residents illegally dump in their household trash.

The city ignored the board’s request, saying that it wouldn’t even consider removing the trashcans.

But last week, CB10 received word that the Department of Sanitation would now take the demand seriously.

“The trash is overflowing on these blocks,” said the board’s Environmental Committee Chairman Greg Ahl. “We’d like to see them a little cleaner and we think [removing the cans] will help.”

The removal would follow the lead of Bensonhurst’s Community Board 11, which banned cans along some of its busy strips, including the corner of Bay Parkway and Bath Avenue.

Members of that board claim that removing the cans was a blessing on some corners — but Ridgites don’t agree.

“I’ve seen neighborhoods without garbage cans,” said Danny Fernandez, who lives on 69th Street. “And all people end up doing is putting their garbage on top of a payphone.”

Others shared Fernandez’s opinion (see sidebar).

This isn’t the first time CB10 has tried to kick the cans. In 2009, the board voted to remove some of the neighborhood’s recepticles, but the city ended up doubling the number of corner baskets instead.

The Department of Sanitation has claimed there have been no problems with litter overflow since the addition of garbage cans on these blocks, though CB10 has continued to make complaints.

The agency also insists the cans are being serviced five times a week, yet Ignazio Terranova, the agency’s citywide community affairs officer, admitted last year that the city had abandoned dedicated servicing of street trashcans.