Ratner, City or State Responsible for Mess on Pacific?
Here’s an email we got from a reader yesterday. We didn’t know the answer but maybe one of you will. I was biking down Pacific Street today and noticed how unkempt the sidewalk was. The street isn’t gone yet, so the question is whose responsibility is it to keep it up. Is it the MTA’s,…
Here’s an email we got from a reader yesterday. We didn’t know the answer but maybe one of you will.
I was biking down Pacific Street today and noticed how unkempt the sidewalk was. The street isn’t gone yet, so the question is whose responsibility is it to keep it up. Is it the MTA’s, The ESDC, or Ratners? I called the liason office but they didn’t know. They said they’d get back to me in a day or two. I expressed my frustration and was told that it’s a big organization and it takes time to find out answers to these things. I pointed out that one needs only to walk outside the office to see that it’s a problem. I called back two and a half hours later and there’s no movement on the issue. Maybe the ombudsman knows.
Well?
as “ddber type” I guess…I’m sorry that when I was 4 I could not have been more vocal and told my parents we should move to Brooklyn, really I’m sorry… but for now…enough with the they this they that…put your money where you mouth is..
People Still Live Here Clean Up Day
The sidewalk all along the North side of Pacific Street between 5th Avenue and Vanderbilt, is still owned by the MTA. Caring for the cleanliness of this space is legally their responsibility. However, in an effort to arguably assist the State in purposefully creating a virtual site of blight, it is no coincidence, that over the past four years, there have been less garbage cans on the street. As a result this area has become a dumping ground. The MTA has done nothing to ensure its cleanliness.
For any other building in the city, if a landlord or home owner has unsightly garbage that is not cleaned up, even if it is blown onto their property, they are slapped with fines. Has the MTA received the same fines? Are they once again being held to a lesser standard than other property owners in the area?
We are tired of waiting. We are tired of looking at the neglect that the State and MTA has allowed, in the name of “progress and renewal.†Is this what we can look forward to in the future if the Atlantic Yards project is to plough through?
This Sunday, neighbors and members of the community will come together in a first attempt at cleaning up, the State’s mess. Four foot weeds can not possibly exemplify Bloomberg’s plan for a greener New York. Brooklynites, it is time to take it upon ourselves to clean up the CITY and STATE CREATED blight.
When: Sunday September 23, 2007 Noon to 5pm
(we figure this is more than a days work and will most likely gather again in coming weeks)
Where: Pacific Street – from 5th Avenue to Vanderbilt
What to Bring: Supplies will be provided, but please consider bringing: garbage bags, recycle bags, gloves, snacks, music – your green thumb!
Who: Neighbors, members of the community, DDDB & Local Garden Group volunteers, anyone who is “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.â€
For another action please contact The Sanitation Dept. on the NYC government website and fill out their very simple form to request garbage cans, or weed removal and the like and to report violations….
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/contact/requests_misc.shtml
I’m 44 years old, a Brooklyn native. You think Pacific looks bad NOW? Try going back to oh, 1977. Or 1985. Don’t get me started! DDB types weren’t around then – the neighborhood wasn’t cool yet. If AY manages to CLEAN UP that street and create a non-broken sidewalk, it will have made more progress than I’ve seen in 30 years.
this area blows. it has always been a total dump. the garbage was probably there 10 years ago.
Why don’t you and a few friends get a few lawn mowers and trash bags and just spend the afternoon doing it? Probably much easier and less frustrating than trying to go through that bureaucracy. Just a thought.
Long before buildings were emptied out and demolitions began, the only areas of the proposed AY footprint that showed signs of blight were government owned. The narrow triangle owned by the MTA at the junction of Atlantic and Flatbush (due east from Modells) being the prime example — for years, it’s been a filthy, unpleasant eyesore. Meanwhile the small-scale redevelopment — residential conversions, small businesses etc — was improving the area long before Bruce Ratner came along. Now, with AY, the taxpayer will be subsidising a private developer to clean up public property. Now the MTA, instead of improving the property, is selling off a public asset to the lowest bidder — who, in turn, will use public money to clean it up. It sure is a topsy turvy world.
Developer or State Sponsored Blight- according to the liason office- it is the MTA’s responsibility and the only thing to be done is call 311.
The pictures and the question were frankly not an attack on Ratner but a legitimate question about process and procedure. And if that side of the street isn’t take care of by the government…. what is the remedy besides 311- as frankly dozens of calls to 311 and community board 2 have yielded me no results on other matters.
That stretch is the responsibility of the MTA. The MTA has neglected its legal responsibility to keep those sidewalks surrounding their rail yards maintained and cleaned. They have never done that.
Then, when the state did its “blight study” it claims that those neglected and unmaintained sidewalks are “blighted” and therefore the state (MTA) can now take people’s properties by eminent domain.
its criminal. and disgusting.
Given their insistence that this area is not blighted, I’m surprised that DDDB hasn’t organized a volunteer effort to clean this area. If their contention of “developer’s blight” is correct, what better way to help fight that tactic by helping to keep the area clean and presentable?
I sent in the pix as I was frustrated that the liason office really couldn’t answer something as simple as who is responsible for taking care of the sidewalks. When the trash gets picked up people feel like someone is at the wheel.
And I agree the accidental greenspace can be great- as long as it doesn’t become an accidental dump or impossible to pass through (as it is in a few spots.)
I think it is the MTA’s job- but has the transfer gone through to Ratner- and if not why isn’t the MTA keeping it clean. Is it the liason office’s job to help the community answer these questions and take care of the site? – simple questions like that should be answered by the “liasion” office. I didn’t feel particularly welcomed with my call and it’s a day later and they are a dollar short.