Dear Editor:
I am concerned about Mayor Roberts’ new “zero tolerance policy on trash and litter,” as outlined in his recent newsletter that accompanied our property tax bills. I commend the mayor on making “clean streets and sidewalks” a priority. But why does the new policy make property owners, who are already grossly overtaxed, responsible for keeping the streets clean instead of the city? Aren’t we already paying for both automated and manual street sweepers? Now we are to be ticketed anywhere from $50 to $1,000 because others choose to litter on or near our property? I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that idea stinks like garbage.
The mayor’s newsletter says that the new Sanitation Task Force is going to be patrolling the streets every day beginning at 11 a.m. and ticketing homeowners if they find litter, stray papers, menus, handbills, circulars, leaves, brush, weeds “and other natural refuse” on stoops, sidewalks and “18 inches into the street”in front of the property. I live next door to a bar. There is a bodega on the corner and another one about a block and a half away. My wife and I are gone all day during the week at work. This is a city. Anyone in it, including those who patronize the bar and the convenience stores, is free to walk on our sidewalk and leave their refuse (empty bottles, cigarette butts, food wrappers, etc.) for us to remember them by.
That’s not to mention all the dog owners who incredibly don’t clean up after their furry little friends. I’m sure many other taxpayers suffer similar indignities. We are not going to be happy campers if we return home from a hard day earning money to pay our sky-high property taxes, only to find that the city is trying to squeeze even more money out of us by ticketing us for the garbage others leave on our property. The mayor’s newsletter also said that as part of the new policy, he had enclosed “No Advertisements” stickers that we can affix to our front doors to deter the army of local leafletters from burying us in menus and sale brochures. This is a good idea in and of itself but in walking around the city, I’ve seen many a front door bearing just such a sticker blocked by mountains of junk handouts.
The city says it will fine any vendors who defy the sticker. Again, commendable. But it would have been nice if the mayor’s office actually remembered to enclose the stickers in the mailing (it didn’t forget to include the tax bill). And it also would have been nice if someone in the new and highly trumpeted Office of Constituent Services actually bothered to pick up the telephone when I called to ask that a sticker be mailed to me. Instead I had to call the mayor’s office directly and have someone (who was very helpful) forward my address to Constituent Services. A minor annoyance but also a bad first impression that makes the new division look like little more than lip service.
The Roberts’ administration, while doubtless well-intentioned, would do well to reconsider this policy. Why not take the money that would be spent on the new task force — which is apparently already built into the recently passed municipal budget — and simply step up the existing street cleaning rounds? That way we all benefit from a cleaner environment without some residents being penalized unfairly for the careless actions of others.
Justin Schack