10 JULY 21 - JULY 27, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Ridgeites fi le lawsuit against DSNY
over change in garbage pickup
BY JONATHAN SPERLING
EDITORIALBROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Amid the revocation of doorfront
trash collection service
by the New York City Department
of Sanitation (DSNY), a group
of residents residing on four private
streets in Bay Ridge announced the
fi ling of a lawsuit against DSNY on
Tuesday, July 18, in an e ort to have
the service reinstated.
The lawsuit comes approximately
four months a er a er trash collection
on Wogan Terrace (94th and 95th
Streets between Fifth Avenue and
Fort Hamilton Parkway), Hamilton
Walk (94th Street between Third
and Fourth Avenues), Lafayette Walk
(94th Street between Third and Fourth
Avenues) and Barwell Terrace (97th
and 98th Streets between Third and
Fourth Avenues) was halted by DSNY.
Despite some private streets receiving
homeside garbage collection service
for over 80 years, DSNY cited safety
concerns as the reasoning behind the
policy, which residents were notifi ed
of in February and went into e ect on
March 13.
“We on the alley streets pay property
taxes to the city, no di erent than
any other homeowner. When the city
collects those taxes, it doesn’t ask us
if our homes are located on public
streets or private streets, it just cashes
the check,” said Bill Larney, a longtime
resident of Barwell Terrace. “We ask
no more from the city than any other
property owner, but we also expect
no less.”
According to the lawsuit, DSNY
workers formerly collected trash on
the alley streets by rolling a cart with
a large barrel down the alley and emptying
resident trash receptacles into
the barrel. The barrel was then taken
to a small truck waiting on the public
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Jonathan Sperling
Barwell Terrace resident Bill Larney spoke.
street and emptied. Since March 13,
however, residents have been forced
to place their garbage receptacles
curbside at the crossing public street
on collection day.
In a response to an inquiry made
by Community Board 10 into an explanation
of the policy, DSNY noted
that “to serve a private street, a DSNY
employee must be able to safely drive
and normally maneuver a 25 yard
collection truck to protect the safety of
DSNY workers,” and that DSNY “never
had ‘direct knowledge’ of the collection
practice on the street and only learned
of it on a review of collection routes in
Community District 10.”
The lawsuit alleges that no known
injuries have ever been sustained
by a sanitation worker as a result of
garbage collection on one of the aforementioned
streets.
“As everybody here does, I applaud
New York’s Strongest. That’s why we
want them back, because they’re really
good at what they did. Sanitation
has done a superior job here for all
those years,” said the residents’ lawyer
Stephen Harrison. “Despite our
strong support for them, it’s not any
more dangerous to pick up trash here
in a private street than it is to pick
up garbage out there on the public
street.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the
policy does not take into account the
e ect that the garbage has on residents
living on the public crossing street
where it must now be placed.
“We have to consider all the di erent
types of environmental impacts
here,” said Harrison. “Noise, odor,
the impact on the quality of life of the
community. All of those things must
be considered.”
In a call placed by Councilmember
Vincent Gentile to DSNY Commissioner
Kathryn Garcia, Gentile was told
that private street residents would
have to indemnify sanitation workers
in order for them to collect trash on
private streets.
“I read the reasoned arguments, and
I think we have a winning argument
here on many, many counts,” said
Gentile, who was contacted by Larney
in regards to the policy change at the
end of February. “When you talk to
to the sanitation workers and their
union, they say ‘look, we’re in the job
of picking up trash and we will go anywhere
to pick up the trash. That’s our
job and that’s what we’ll do.’ Workers
themselves have no problems coming
down the private streets.”
The lawsuit was fi led on June 26
and DSNY had not fi led responding
papers as of press time. To view the
documents pertaining to the lawsuit,
visit https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/
nyscef/CaseSearch and enter the case
number 512565 and year 2017. Click
on the case number and and a list of
documents will appear.
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