To ticket or not to ticket, that is the question.
Some Marine Park streets have become so filthy that residents are doing the unthinkable – asking the Department of Sanitation to ticket their neighbors.
On Quentin Road, “People are throwing bread on the street to feed the pigeons,” East 34th Street resident Natalie Brown said incredulously. “It is our neighborhood. We should want to keep it clean.”
Brown suggested that City Councilmember Lew Fidler ask Sanitation officials to increase their patrol of Marine Park and ticket offenders.
However, Marine Park Civic Association President Greg Borruso says the trash can be discarded without intervention from the city.
“Before we send ticket agents there, let’s remind [residents] that they need to sweep up and shovel the snow. They’re our neighbors,” Borruso said.
Fidler warned that an increase in ticketing could ultimately hurt homeowners.
“I’m not all that anxious to be asking for an uptick in tickets and enforcement in Marine Park because I believe we get more than our share,” he said.
If Sanitation workers were called in to police a specific site, Fidler believes they’ll walk up and down nearby streets and ticket businesses and homeowners willy-nilly.
Recalling an incident several years ago, Fidler said, “They issued a rash of tickets about people putting garbage cans out too early. That’s insane. How many people are complaining about people putting their garbage cans out too early?”
“They issue tickets in this city to raise revenue — not to keep the streets clean,” Fidler noted.
East 37th Street resident Tom Labarbera insists that the city should police the worst areas in Marine Park – notably a stretch of Hendrickson Street between Avenue V and Hendrickson Place which has become a dumping ground for construction workers.
“The place had been cleaned up after January but they’re dumping there again,” explained Labarbera, who is a former Sanitation employee. “It’s even worse than before.”
“The bad spots should be ticketed,” Fidler agreed.
The Department of Sanitation has expressed interest in working with Marine Park residents to determine the best time to visit Hendrickson Street to issue tickets for illegal dumping.
