New Guy Plans To Tackle Garbage Problem In Parks

Photo via Joe Holmes's Flickr

We know that Prospect Park loves litterbugs, but the Parks Department’s new borough commissioner, Kevin Jeffery, might put an end to their trash-tossing good times! According to the Brooklyn Paper, this guy is targeting the area's trash problem. He told them, “We need to respond to the challenges of higher usage. We need to change the culture when it comes to littering—get people to think differently about it.”

Jeffrey took his post yesterday, but has worked with the department for 31 years; he's taking the place of Julius Spiegel, who upon his retirement declared: “I don’t know how much I’m going to use [parks].I never did—I’d see too many things that pissed me off.” Let's hope Jeffrey is a little more positive! After all, he's probably got to deal with all those animal murders and keep the public safe from the saber-tooth tigers.

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By Jen Carlson in News on October 5, 2010 5:41 PM

Comments [rss]

Brooklyn

The garbage cans Parks uses are very expensive. Poor people, not odd people, rummaging through the garbage to find bottles and cans provide a service. Ultimately, Parks needs to get more volunteers, and ask more of league leaders and permit holders.

random transplant

How about turning some of the horse trails and footpaths over to mountain bikes and/or hikers, or other conservation-minded organized groups of people who tend to pick up the trash as they use the area?

Some of the park's nicest 'natural' spots are full of condoms & drug-trash, bottles, ect. because there is little legitimate reason for patrons to be the more isolated areas. Which in turn keeps them isolated.

Then again, the people who end up on the foot-paths already might litter less if there were some trash cans.

cmdrogogov

How does he plan to start with this? Well, they're going to ban smoking in the parks to start with, then presumably slowly graduate until humans are banned from the parks too.

More trash receptacles would be a great idea if they could do something about those odd people who poke through them for cans, spreading all the garbage around as they go.

rosweed

It might help if the park had more trash receptacles. Depending on a dog owner's group like FIDO to donate much needed trash barrels is ridiculous. Are there even any littering laws in NYC? It wouldn't surprise me if the answer is no given the worse than pig sty conditions that people choose to live in, but, if there are, how about writing some tickets?