GARBAGE DUMP
City trash collectors create trash-can walls along Ninth Street bike lane
Grand Prospect Hall-of-fame
Michael and Alice Halkias, and Pete Alfonso. Photo by Michael Glozman
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 1-7, 2019 3
BY BEN VERDE
Talk about trashy.
A Park Slope lawyer says he
witnessed workers from the Department
of Sanitation creating
barricades out of garbage cans
along the Ninth Street bike lane
to protest cyclists.
Sloper Adam White noticed
several walls of trash cans
blocking the protected bike
lane on his ride into the Prospect
Park YMCA early Saturday
morning.
The cyclist at fi rst chalked
the hazards up to simple negligence
— until he spotted municipal
trash haulers deliberately
placing the cans in the lane.
When he confronted them,
White says one of the waste
collectors went on a long rant
about cyclists, who he accused
of riding recklessly and wreaking
havoc on city streets.
“He was going ‘you bicyclists
this’ and you ‘bicyclists that,’”
White said. “That’s when I realized
this was an intentional
act.”
White tried reasoning with
the saboteurs, saying he respected
them and their work,
but the garbage men refused to
clean up their mess.
“I literally said ‘I love you
guys, why are you doing this?’ I
guess they thought I was being
sarcastic,” he said.
White, an attorney who represents
crash victims, said he
knows a thing or two about the
danger cyclists face on the road,
but that he’s never seen a professional
driver intentionally
create hazards for bikers.
“When you have professional
drivers out there with
that mindset it’s kind of scary,”
White said. “We can’t tolerate
that sort of act of deliberate hostility.”
DSNY drivers have killed
two pedestrians in the past
year, including Alberto Leal,
a Crown Heights resident who
was killed in October of last
year when a sanitation driver
turned the wrong way onto a
one way street. Another pedestrian
was killed by a DSNY salt
truck driver in the Bronx in
January .
The Sanitation Department
has a much better driving record
than the private carting
industry, where workers are
pushed to drive recklessly to
increase profi ts and were involved
in 67 crashes between
March 2016 and April 2018, killing
fi ve people, according to a
report by the Transform Don’t
Trash NYC labor coalition . Cyclists
have killed fi ve pedestrians
since 2014 .
The Ninth Street bike lane
was added in 2018, as part of traffi
c calming changes made to the
two-way artery after a driver
killed two children and sent
three adults – including a pregnant
woman – to the hospital.
The Sanitation Department
says it is investigating the incident
and may take disciplinary
action, depending on its fi ndings.
“The Department is investigating
the report, and could
take disciplinary action, depending
on our fi ndings,” said
DSNY spokesperson Belinda
Mager.
GROSS: Workers created several barricades out of garbage cans. Photo by Adam White
BY BEN VERDE
He’ll make all your dreams
come true — except if you
dream of the playoffs!
New York Mets all-star Pete
Alonso stopped by Grand
Prospect Hall to freshen
up the Park Slope banquet
hall’s iconic television ad
during a recent episode of
Jimmy Kimmel Live, which
spent the week fi lming at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“When it comes to special
events and weddings, the
Grand Prospect Hall is a big
homerun,” said Alonso.
The 2019 National League
Rookie of the Year stands
alongside the grand halls
owners — Michael and Alice
Halkias — as they tour the
glitzy event space, from the
Chopin Room to the comically
large chandelier above
the grand ballroom.
The original Grand Prospect
Hall advertisement has become
a local legend since it
fi rst aired in 2009 thanks to
its small budget and big promises
— pledging to make “all
your dreams come true” —
and has now been spoofed by
both Kimmel and Saturday
Night Live .
The ad aired 20 times a day on
local television stations at its
peak, according to the Daily
News .
Attorney Adam White says the pictured worker went on a rant about
scoffl aw cyclists. Photo by Adam White