Residents at Monday night’s Community of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together (COMET) had the chance to sound off on some issues concerning their neighborhood, including illegal garbage dumping and littering in tree pits.
Maspeth residents have noticed that some tenants of second-floor apartments along commercial businesses have been illegally dumping their garbage bags next to public litter baskets, which carries a $100 fine if caught.
According to Michael Terry, president of the Maspeth Chamber of Commerce and special guest speaker at the meeting, tree pits along Grand Avenue have also become a problem due to people littering. He added that the iron fencing that surrounds the tree pits makes it difficult for someone to get out of their car without smashing the passenger side door if it’s near a parking meter. He called it a “totally insane, stupid design.”
Terry said that the tree pits were put in place and then abandoned, leaving it to fill up with garbage and weeds because it is not being taken care of. He said that he wants the tree pits gone from the neighborhood if no one is going to maintain it.
Roe Daraio, COMET president, presented an idea of having the kids from the AmeriCorps youth group clean the pits. Daraio said that everybody would benefit as the pits would be clean and the kids could use it as community service credit for school.
While Terry liked Daraio’s idea, he believes that the Parks Department and Sanitation Department should help in keeping the tree pits clean.
“Most storeowners on Grand Avenue are not horticulturists,” said Terry, who is the president of MTP Advisors on Grand Avenue. “I don’t know a thing about plants.”
Matthew LiPani, public Information Officer for the Sanitation Department, said that Sanitation does not maintain tree pits. Business owners are responsible maintaining a tree pit adjacent to their property. According to the Sanitation Department, anyone caught littering on a sidewalk would be subject to a $100 fine. A property owner that doesn’t clean their sidewalk would be hit with a ‘dirty sidewalk’ violation, which is also a $100 fine.
Maspeth resident Linda D’aquaro said that they should just remove the tree pits completely because people don’t clean them.
“I’m just tired of walking up Grand Avenue to a mess,” D’aquaro said.
104th Precinct crime update
Captain Michael Cody, commanding officer of the 104th Precinct, attended the meeting to give residents the latest crime statistics from August 29 to September 25.
Overall, Cody said that crime in the area is down six percent compared to last year. He also reported that they had no tire and rim burglaries over this time period, which is in sharp contrast to last month’s meeting when Cody said that people stealing tires and rims was the prevalent crime in the precinct.
Cody also spoke in brief about what the precinct is doing to help implement the Maspeth bypass traffic plan. The bypass plan, which was approved by Community Board 5 in July, converts Maurice Avenue to a one-way street going northbound and 58th Street to a one-way going southbound. It also changes Flushing and Grand avenues to local truck routes after residents complained that trucks were using those streets as shortcuts to other parts of the city.
Although the full plan hasn’t gone into effect yet, Cody said he has traffic officers out on Maurice Avenue to make sure people follow the new route.
“We’re all creatures of habit,” Cody said. “Those trucks are going one way and you’re going the other way. We don’t want you to get into a bad accident.”
He said that he would give drivers a 72 hour grace period before his officers would start to ticket people.
COMET will hold its next meeting on Monday, November 7th at Bethzatha Church of God on 85-20 57th Avenue in Elmhurst at 7 p.m.
By Luis Gronda
Photo Caption: Unmaintained tree pits and illegal dumping are becoming a serious problem for business owners along Grand Avenue, Maspeth residents said at last week’s COMET meeting.
Photo Courtesy of COMET member Shirley Warren
