Jonothon Lyons, creator of Buddy the Rat, is launching a community litter clean initiative called "Buddy's Brigade: Litter Exterminators."
Lyons and NYC entrepreneur Michael Quinn are hosting a series of volunteer community litter cleanups around New York City with material resource support from the Department of Sanitation.
The first cleanup will be around the perimeter of Tompkins Square Park this Thursday (Aug. 18) at 5 p.m.
Volunteers can meet at the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue A on Thursday. You don't need to bring anything: Quinn said that the Department of Sanitation will be supplying all of the necessary resources and equipment. They will also be coming back to pick up the trash, he said.
42 comments:
I love how DOS if providing citizens with the materials instead of doing it themselves wtf
No need to wait until the 18th. We all can do our part and pick up trash as we are walking.
I think this is a great initiative. Way too much trash gets strewn in that park for the few DOS and DOP&R to stay on top of, especially during the summer. If you care about the park, stop complaining and HELP.
I’m glad this is happening but citizens shouldn’t have be relied on to clean filthy public spaces in a city that has a 100 BILLION dollar budget. That’s just wrong.
I am in! Can we also add to this East 4th street between b. & C? I live on that block and have been doing everything in my power to reach out to The Earth School for solutions to why their tree gutters and sidewalks are never, ever cleaned. Everyone else on the block takes care. I’m happy to help with the neighborhood. Gina.
Exactly! I do the same.
Or people could just stop being lazy slobs who leave a big mess in the first place!
But I guess taking personal responsibility is not "fun", so it's up to OTHER PEOPLE (who are not paid) to clean up after the infantile ones.
If everyone just cleaned up after themselves this would not be a problem. We should be utilizing track and trace for these litterbugs. As people walk through the park we already know who the person is by their cell signal. Simply marry this data with camera footage and perps are identified!
I love this idea, but I see it as a lost cause. Sorry for being such a pessimist.
Didn’t think picking up trash would escalate to violating the 4th Amendment…
Yesterday I saw cops all over town confiscating delivery driver scooters which they send to the scrap yard for destruction. Maybe they should sell those scooters to raise funds in order to properly clean our streets and parks, or maybe they should let those drivers keep their scooters and sentence them to community service cleaning up our public areas. Any way you look at it the city has its priorities backwards.
@ 1:17: At first glance (and thought) I liked the idea of using tech for track and trace, but do we really want to push tech to use surveillance to that degree? We should be careful what we wish for.
Also, if cops cannot even bring someone in for questioning who multiple witnesses say struck a woman/person with a shovel before driving recklessly through Tompkins Park putting bystanders at risk, then we sure as hell cannot be bothered with litterbugs. The few cops I see appear to be standing around. I know that can't be true, right? I guess it's hard to strike a balance, but it does seem like things are more out of control then normal.
Re: Littering. The streets are disgusting, but that's nothing new. I clean up the little school park near me all the time, in part to set an example, but also because I use it frequently and like to take part in being a good citizen/custodian of that park. (It needn't be your litter if you're passing a garbage can and see something). But again, you must be raised to believe that you are part of a community. If I'm feeling it (and it's not too hot) I might also take part in the Tompkins clean-up as well.
Face it; NYC is filthy, NYers can barely hit the trash can and generally drop their garbage on the street- at least they do on the LES.
@ 9:50 AM Exactly. WTF
Watch out for needles…
I live on 7th and C. I walk into this park on a daily basis and am mortified but not surprised by the trash and litter that has accumulated, which leads me to wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to suntan on a towel of barren grass like one is on the beach. It is beyond me. The endless array of food/drink containers is what attracts rodents and their waste. I think this is a great idea as neighbors to come together and pitch in, but it is not however a solution to an ongoing issue that has affected us as long time residents for years. Since I moved in during the spring of 2010, it has only gotten worse. I wish the city hired more people to clean this park on a daily or semi daily basis, especially after a weekend of kids just partied and left their mess for us behind. Not cool! As taxpayers of this beloved community, more needs to be accomplished. After all, most of us have careers, busy schedules, obligations. and families with little to no time for volunteering on this level. The city needs to step up. Our mayor needs to step up if he isn't busy bolstering his image.
There is a man who takes it upon himself to walk around daily and pick up litter and put it in the trash can. I don't know who he is but THANK YOU to him. We all need to follow his lead.
@2:47- The police can't "take someone in for questioning" based on witnesses' testimony/ hearsay. There seems to be more to the shovel incident than is reported by the EV commentariat. Apparently the woman/ person did not press charges so cased closed on that. If car guy was indeed jumped by crackheads it may have very well been self defense. If car guy wasn't DWI, or if he didn't have an outstanding warrant, again no cause for arrest. I wasn't there but sounds like the Police went by the book on this one.
@5:41pm: "especially after a weekend of kids just partied and left their mess for us behind. Not cool!"
I completely agree with you, and I don't know why those kids, who have so much energy to party, are not expected to clean up after themselves.
I'd love to see them locked *into* an area of the park until they are sober enough to clean up their mess, or else they would have to fork over a "cover charge" for messing up the park; I think about $10/person would be fair, since they seem to have plenty of money for food, drugs, etc. and they come from all around to befoul our park.
@8:33pm: "We all need to follow his lead." Hey, I'm all in favor of citizens doing good deeds & caring for the area, but how do we get the people who CREATE the mess to "follow his lead"? That's what I want to know.
Why do all these people feel okay about dropping their garbage anywhere they happen to be?
I shudder to think what their apartments must look like (except a bunch of them probably are still living in their parents' basements, and they're used to mom being their daily maid service...).
The men's room at Tompkins Square Park makes Dante's seventh circle of hell look like the Love Boat.
Great program. You all could also just do NY cares and contribute to the neighborhood all year. If that doesn’t interfere with your coffee drinking time.
We can’t fix them. But we can care about our neighborhood. It’s not that hard. Cleaning tree pits. Picking up trash. Looking out for the elderly. Being a good community member isn’t just paying taxes.
I’ve lived in the East Village for 34 years & there has never been so much litter & trash on the streets & sidewalks. I pick-up litter whenever I can & wish others would do the same. It’s disgusting & needs to improve.
NY’ers don’t drop their trash. Now the morons from other states who didn’t grow up with trash in bins in the back of the building do . Stop talking poorly about the people you chose to move in next to, kid.
Local residents are likely not the ones throwing trash in the streets. It’s their home! There has to be a way to stop the party crowds from littering on our streets. Businesses have to do a better job at cleaning in front of their doors too. Especially the tree beds! Come on NYC!! We’re better than this.
@ 8:40: I disagree. The police certainly should have acted and taken the car person into the precinct for questioning and most other neighbors also agree. How is it that you think a person should drive their vehicle into a crowded public park where vehicles are not permitted as "self-defense"?
LOL! Our tax dollars at work!
Is there a Tompkins Square Park Conservancy group along the lines of the washington square one, the union square one, or the madison square one? and if not why?
As someone who has lived in Ave B for 25 years , I have never seen the park so filthy. While this is a nice gesture , having the neighborhood clean the park is not a solution. Why does the NYC Parks Dept not clean the park? We all pay taxes and it is not our job to clean up after people who have no manners and throw garbage in the park. I was in Stuyvesant Square Park yesterday and there was not one piece of litter . Tompkins needs like 10 people cleaning the park daily and more garbage cans and people actually cleaning them several times a day.
100% !!! why do businesses no longer clean the tree beds and sidewalks . They should be fined .
It is junkies and people visiting the park who are littering not tax paying citizens of the East Village.
Or actually trying to make a living and working…as if we all have time to maintain a massive park .
He is a part of a city program . We need like 10-15 more or him inside park Z he does AVE B
“If that doesn’t interfere with your coffee drinking time.”
Seriously, what kind of comment is that? Unreal.
Please file a complaint via 311. YES they do use your complaints and present it to the offices regarding issues and budgeting. Make sure you keep a copy of the case number bc the offices will need it. Carlina Rivera and Harvey Epstein offices are aware of this garbage. Please don't comment unnecessarily with snide comments regarding political parties or nothing will ever work. Just complain about the problem at hand online so they can hopefully increase budget for cleanup, etc. Thanks.
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01060
Have maintenance services for
Buildings been outsourced differently? I do wonder because in the past few years the sidewalks are really dirty. They used to always get cleaned up early in the morning by the people employed by the buildings.
@10:51- The reason that car guy wasn't taken in for *questioning* is because the NYPD is not supposed to act like the East German Stasi. If you know better than everyone else what exactly is the *crime* that he was to be charged with at the time of the incident? Was he intoxicated? Did he have an open warrant? Did the woman he allegedly hit want to press charges?
Based on what I see happening in the city, nearly every agency being run by the Adams Administration is a catastrophic failure.
100% -311 does help!
I think the mayor and the DA have made it clear that there are almost no actual consequences for anything most people do these days, and littering is at the bottom of their list.
I've lived here a very long time, and even in the "bad old days" it wasn't like it is now; the current level/number of people not giving a fuck about the mess they make or the disturbance they may cause is a whole new "low" for life in the East Village, IMO.
I remember a time when people wouldn't visit their friends who lived below 14th St. b/c it was "too dangerous", yet now somehow our area is treated like a kind of perverted theme park where people from all over come & literally dump their crap everywhere. I guess they figure that we, the minions of the "theme park", are stuck cleaning up their messes, so they can come back again the next time and do it all again.
@9:03- How about reckless driving / public endangerment? Public nuisance? Property damage? And just because I would prefer a person like this held to account for endangering others does not mean I'm a Nazi or pro-Nazi or that the police, if they had acted, are Nazis. Please. A little passionate for your defense of the reckless, thoughtless driver, no? Again, always talking in extremes.
I don’t understand. If our elected officials know that the trash /litter in Tompkins Square Park is a problem, why don’t they budget accordingly? I’ve heard Carlina Rivera on Brian Lehrer dismiss a constituent for complaining about the increase in rats.
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