Dispute Settled on Garbage Pickup

Two weeks of back and forth discussions and meetings over how the New York City Department of Sanitation should handle the garbage collection in the Crown Heights neighborhood has resulted in a final and united recommendation.

On Thursday, April 2nd, a meeting was held at Community Board 9 offices to discuss solutions for garbage collection during the winter months. Prompting the meeting was the handling of the waste during this past winter, when garbage was unable to be collected from local alleys for some 6 weeks.

At one point, there were hundreds of garbage bags piled up behind homes.

Representatives from the Sanitation Department, Pinny Ringel from the Mayor’s Office, the Community District Manager, a representative of City Council Member Laurie Cumbo, the Jewish Community Council and several block associations participated in the meeting.

At the meeting, Sanitation officials offered the community two possible ways to approach Crown Heights garbage pick-ups in the winter:

A. Only on the days when there is heavy snow or ice in the alleys and those passageways become unsafe for garbage pick-ups, residents can place their garbage in front of their homes or at the beginning of the alley.

B. Garbage pick-ups would automatically be switched to the front of the house and only collected from there, beginning from the first Monday in December until mid-March.

There was a visible disagreement among the meeting participants over which option is better for the community.

The block associations, supported by Cumbo’s office, opposed option B, while another advocated for a permanent wintertime solution.

News of the meeting spread, and representatives of 4 block associations and some 75 residents emailed the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit to express opposition to switching garbage pickup to the front of houses for the entire winter.

At last, representatives and activists representing the Jewish community reached a mutual position.

“After numerous consultations, including all the people who were active during the storm last year on this issue, it seems that option A is the preferred option — no fixed dates. We need to work on collecting block email lists so we can get out timely notifications and be sure everyone sees them,” The Crown Heights Jewish Community Council said.

Due to the tremendous response, Sanitation has agreed that garbage collection will remain in the alleys next winter. Residents will have the option of bringing the garbage to the front of the house or beginning of the alleys for collection only on the days when alleyways are unsafe for garbage pick-ups.

“Sanitation made the right choice,” said community activist Yaacov Behrman. “Garbage pickup in front of the house would severely mar the the beauty of the blocks, turning our lovely streets–some of the nicest blocks in the neighborhood, into streets made unkempt and ugly by garbage, affecting our quality of life.”