4 FEBRUARY 8, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Holden says city’s ‘pay as you throw’ plan is ‘trash’
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
The De1partment of Sanitation
is looking for ways to fund its
$1.7 billion budget, and Queens
Councilman Robert Holden was quick
to speak out against one of its most
controversial proposed solutions.
On Feb. 1, Holden’s offi ce sent out
a press release, and later addressed
the Ridgewood Property Owners and
Civic Association at a meeting the
same night, voicing his opposition to
the city’s proposed plan of charging a
fee for trash collection.
In January, the city hired a consultant
for $1 million to evaluate the feasibility
of a “pay as you throw” program
that would see homeowners, renters
and co-op owners paying to have their
trash removed.
“I believe the recent proposal from
Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn
Garcia will impose an undue burden
on the working class in my district, as
well as other districts across the city,”
Holden said in the statement. “This is
a mismanagement of taxpayer dollars,
and frankly, the plan is trash.”
Holden further explained that
New Yorkers’ tax dollars should be
suffi cient enough to pay for reliable
sanitation services.
In an interview with CBS, Garcia likened
the “pay as you throw” proposal
to the implementation of water bills
in the city. When New Yorkers were
forced to start paying bills for how
much water they used, they began
using less water to save money. In
theory, charging for trash removal
would be a way to give incentive for
New Yorkers to recycle, Garcia said.
“Pay as you throw” systems are
used in many cities and communities
around the country and have been
endorsed by the Environmental Protection
Agency as an eff ective way to
improve environmental and economic
sustainability. The gist of it is the less
trash you have, the less money you pay.
The role of the hired consultant
will be to determine how the program
would be implemented, whether residents
would be charged by the number
of trash cans they fi ll, the number of
bags they fill or the weight of the
trash. When he spoke in front of the
Ridgewood Property Owners, Holden
highlighted what he believes would be
the main problem.
“People will start dumping because
they don’t want to pay,” Holden said, as
several people at the meeting voiced
their agreement. “What will they do?
They’ll put it on somebody else’s property,
or public property, on corners,
that’s a problem. We know New York
City residents, don’t we?”
Holden assured his constituents
at the meeting that he will do whatever
he can to stop the “pay as you
throw” program in his capacity as a
councilman.
If the plan eventually moves forward,
Garcia told CBS that there would
need to be a stepped-up enforcement
program. The consultant is expected
to have a more formal proposal within
a year.
Photo by Ryan Kelley/QNS
Councilman Robert Holden at a Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic
Association meeting on Feb. 1.
More trash on Myrtle Avenue during the winter months
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Myrtle Avenue spans two
miles across Ridgewood
and Glendale, but there’s
one glaring diff erence between the
two neighborhoods along the area’s
most popular commercial strip.
In January, dozens of residents
spoke out on Facebook when they
noticed an increased amount of trash
built up along the sidewalks of the
Glendale section of the avenue, and
there is a deeper explanation than
just the average human carelessness.
One of the primary factors is the
suspension of the Department of Sanitation’s
extra trash basket services
during the winter months, said Ted
Renz, executive director of the Myrtle
Avenue Business Improvement
District (BID).
Thanks to additional funding
secured in 2016 by former Councilwoman
Elizabeth Crowley and
Councilman Antonio Reynoso, the
Department of Sanitation expanded
its services to collect trash more oft en
from the trash baskets along several
of Community Board 5’s main roadways,
including Myrtle Avenue.
Renz said that this allowed for
seven-day-a-week service to Myrtle
Avenue’s trash baskets, but during
the winter months that service is
reduced to accommodate the need
for snow removal. The Myrtle
Avenue BID is also the reason why
the Ridgewood portion of the street
has remained cleaner than the
Glendale portion. Renz said the BID
only covers Ridgewood, and it contracts
other employees that sweep
the sidewalks daily and collect the
sweepings in clear trash bags.
Councilman Robert Holden also
confi rmed the reduced services when
he told QNS that his offi ce had seen the
Facebook complaints and looked into
the issue. Holden said that the full-time
services will resume aft er March 31,
and he hopes to secure even more
funding to expand these services past
the 39 weeks that were guaranteed
under Crowley’s 2017 funding plan.
“We have a lot of commercial districts
that aren’t as clean as they used
to be, and we need to start addressing
this,” Holden said. “I’m a big proponent
of keeping the neighborhood
nice and clean.”
Holden also emphasized that property
owners who see illegal dumping
or sidewalks that aren’t clean should
always fi le 311 complaints and report
it to his offi ce.
Board 5 Chairman Vincent Arcuri
said that the advisory body has
reached out to the superintendent of
the Department of Sanitation aft er
residents came to the board with
their complaints.
Still, the biggest responsibility for
keeping the sidewalks clean lies on
the residents and business owners.
According the Department of Sanitation’s
cleaning laws, the sidewalks
and gutter areas 18 inches from the
curb into the street must be kept
clean and the sweepings must be
picked up and cannot be dumped
in Sanitation baskets. Enforcement
agents who notice dirty sidewalks
and gutters can issue fi nes from $100
to $300.
The Department of Environmental
Protection also prohibits the
washing of sidewalks between Nov.
1 and March 31 under its water use
restrictions.
File photo/QNS
