Progress made in trash talk on East 12th Street

A group of residents on East 12th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue have had ongoing concerns about the trash piling up outside the buildings that house Ross Global Academy Charter School and East Side High School. With almost 800 kids, the school population between First and Avenue A is considerably larger than the three other schools on 12th Street and requires a greater number of trash pick-ups.

As one resident noted, the schools can dump on the sidewalk any time of the day or night while residents must comply with trash pick-up rules. "Every day we have to walk out of our building and look at bags of garbage and a running stream of sour chocolate milk in the gutter," one resident said. In addition, the fire hydrant on the south side of the street was often piled over with trash.








However, after a series of meetings with school officials, including the building engineer, as well as a flurry of e-mails and phone calls with Sanitation Department officials, there is progress to report. The residents are pleased to note a striking "culture change" in the past two weeks in the way that trash has been managed at the school facility.

In an e-mail, one neighbor noted "the initiative ... to establish an additional late Friday/early Saturday pick-up resulted in the elimination of a growing weekend trash heap which has caused tension between the school and the neighborhood. The constant, ever-heaping mountains of trash present not only an eyesore, but a a health hazard to the community, especially with bedbug outbreaks throughout the city."

On weekends, the sidewalks were trash free... and the fire hydrant has also been painted...



Said a resident: "This is a good start ... we will continue to monitor and review the situation and I look forward to continued collaboration and cooperation."