Mott Haven business boosters and residents are hoping that new security cameras they are proposing will deter illegal dumpers and help address long-running concerns about overflowing trash in one of the city’s busiest commercial arteries.
The Third Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) recently sent a proposal to local leaders, including Councilman Rafael Salamanca, Jr., Assembly members Amanda Septimo and Chantel Jackson, as well as the sanitation department and Community Board 1, requesting cameras be mounted clandestinely in seven hot spots around the neighborhood. So far, however, there is no word about when or if the proposal will be acted on.
“I have no idea on the timeline,” Pedro Suarez, the executive director of the BID, told the Mott Haven Herald. The seven sites where the cameras are being considered are being kept secret to avoid alerting serial dumpers, who could be prompted to dump trash in other locations.
The city started using surveillance to curb illegal dumping in 2022 at multiple pilot sites citywide, including Hunts Point and Longwood, where 15 cameras were deployed.
Within the last two years, roughly 300 cameras have been positioned in known hotspots around the city, according to the Department of Sanitation’s press secretary Vincent Gragnani.
More than 200 illegal dumping summonses were issued so far this year, he added.
“Each of those summonses starts at $4,000, with the cost of cleaning up the mess also passed along to the dumper,” said Gragnani. “We also impound the vehicles involved.”
Sanitation department data showed 286 illegal dumping vehicles have been impounded so far this year.
Some pedestrians in The Hub say the garbage problem stems from street vendors and people from outside the community who drive in to dump their trash.
“They leave boxes with fruits, all of those things that can identify the person who’s doing it,” said a 60-year-old woman who identified herself by her first name, Mayra. “Business people in the corners, they do that at nighttime.”
For many, the solution is simple: expand collection times and increase the number of trash bins.
“If the sanitation department comes around on a regular basis — which doesn’t seem like the case when I’m down here — I think that things would be much cleaner,” said Wesley Canty, 30, a behavioral health specialist who works in The Hub. While he spoke, the wind blew plastic bags and litter onto his feet.
Another resident, who requested anonymity because of his role as a community leader, said some areas do not even have bins.
“A lot of businesses put the trash out when they close,” he said. “But where I am doesn’t have any bins when they’re supposed to have it.”
Data shows there are 651 litter baskets in Bronx Community District 1, 32 of which are located in the area overseen by the Third Avenue BID, between E. 148th Street and East 156th Street, and Bergen and Melrose avenues. But a Herald reporter on Oct. 2 counted just 27 litter baskets.
Missed collection
Trash in the community is slated for collection three times a week, the same as in Tribeca, the Upper West Side and other Manhattan neighborhoods. Gragnani, the sanitation spokesman, said “DSNY does not pick up trash more frequently than that in any other part of the city.”
The department said it missed very few collections this year and last, and rounded the percentage down near zero. The Herald’s analysis of 311 service requests data shows there were 119 missed collection complaints in Community District 1 by the end of September this year and 244 all of last year.
Open-air drug use
Another sanitation problem BID Director Suarez says needs to be addressed is othe improper disposal of used syringes and needles connected with drug use in the open.
“The problem with that is that syringes have to be put in a separate safe container for collection,” he said, pointing out that sanitation workers cannot collect trash bags with hazardous materials in them.
The Environmental Police Unit, a division of the Department of Environmental Protection, must take out syringes and needles before the sanitation team can continue normal operations.
Resources needed
Cesar Yoc, Chair of Community Board 1’s recently created sanitation committee, said Board 1 tries to coordinate with the sanitation department, but are routinely told the city lacks the resources to collaborate.
Board 1’s District Manager Anthony Jordan attributes the buildup of trash in and around Mott Haven to “a problem with equity of resources,” noting that city agencies put Manhattan above the Bronx, regardless of the number of people served.
“We’re the second busiest transit commercial district to Times Square,” Jordan said. “And there’s so many issues relating to sanitation that sets that back.”
On Sept. 30, representatives from city agencies conducted a walkthrough of The Hub to assess the issues residents have been grumbling about for years. The agencies came to an agreement that as of Oct. 7 they would spend several hours daily over three weeks cleaning sidewalks and ramping up enforcement among street vendors, after which they said they will reassess conditions.