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GEE, I WONDER WHY WE HAVE A RAT INFESTATION?

July 14, 2013 | 9:21 PM
in NEWS, OUTDOORS
16

This weekend, the city took away garbage cans around West 72nd street and Columbus, just as tens of thousands of people flocked to the area to watch a concert in Central Park on Saturday and the triathlon on Sunday. The result: corners were piled with garbage with food spilled everywhere. Rat Party!

Why are we buying $3,000 garbage cans to “fix” the neighborhood’s famed rat problem? Why can’t the city just pick up the garbage? Particularly in a neighborhood that absorbs mobs of tourists all summer?

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Tadzio Smeed
Tadzio Smeed
11 years ago

This is because a ferret-faced school marm mayor is a douche,

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Jaime
Jaime
11 years ago

Probably because there are assholes that put bombs in trashcans.

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Louis Brusco
Louis Brusco
11 years ago

Hopefully, it was just because of the Triathlon and the receptacles will be replaces. What bothers me more is that so many of these are not emptied by NYC Sanitation but by quasi-public entities such as Beautification Committees or Business Improvement Districts – why can’t the city pick up the garbage with the rest of it???

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mio
mio
11 years ago
Reply to  Louis Brusco

Exactly!! I’ve never been in a City anywhere in the world that is more gross and neglected than this one has become.. Start with cleaning up the walls in the subways. Doesn’t it occur to the powers that be that this is a huge disgusting mess. Just walking down the streets you’re almost sick from the stench of old garbage and gallons of dog piss everywhere..
The City makes tons from tourists … you want this to stop?

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Jane Lindley
Jane Lindley
11 years ago

The real issue is why the city removed the garbage cans rather than the $3,000 cans designed to hold more garbage and reduce cost of collection. Understand the garbage can at 77th street was paid for by Shake Shack, not the city!

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West Sider
Author
West Sider
11 years ago
Reply to  Jane Lindley

That one was sponsored by Shake Shack, but taxpayers are expected to pay for the other ones that will be installed (in Verdi Square, etc.). Avi

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Ken
Ken
11 years ago

It would be interesting to learn why the cans were all picked up ahead of the weekend – perhaps are they all being replaced and the management of that was not handled well by the City (?)

I think the $3,000 solar powered trash can at 77th was paid for by way of a sponsorship from Danny Meyers restaurant organization – owners of Shake Shack

Tadzio Smeed – you will clearly never be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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UWS Pilates
UWS Pilates
11 years ago

Appalling.
We just left our dog at the vet as he got bitten by a rat.
Nausea, weakness and severe vomiting fits.
We hope he will be ok as those nasty creatures carry many viruses, including Leptospirosis that can easily transfer to human.

The place around Thelonious Monk’s is infested with rats – byw – it is a kids playground.

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Rat A. Tooey
Rat A. Tooey
11 years ago

Re: “The result: corners were piled with garbage with food spilled everywhere. Rat Party!”

O.M.G., YES-s-s-s-s-s!! (to quote Molly Bloom)

I am so full! (NOT quoting Molly Bloom)

Thanks for the grub!

And, with a grub -fest like that, no need to bite dogs (#6)…the only ‘dog’ I’d rather bite is in a bun, with mustard and relish.

🙂

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Beth
Beth
11 years ago

The Triathlon was a big event like the Boston Marathon. The cans were probably removed so as to prevent someone dropping a bomb in one of the cans. I was on Columbus and 72nd this morning and the cans were back.

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Manhattan Maria
Manhattan Maria
11 years ago
Reply to  Beth

Of course. Why don’t people realize this?

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jerry
jerry
11 years ago
Reply to  Beth

Well, disregarding the Triathalon for the moment, the reason the lack of garbage cans in our parks is because the Overseers of our fair city feel the cans are an eyesore and are not inviting to our tourist friends. So that’s why, for the third week in a row, the garbage can just inside Riverside Park at 89th street and the one on the south end of the Promenade at 83rd Street are overflowing on Sunday morning and vomiting a total mess by Monday morning.

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Anthony Roberts
Anthony Roberts
11 years ago

Daily decisions or decisions over time as to City governance originate with one little micro-manager. You talk about garbage! View 97th Street on a Friday morning!

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Jess
Jess
11 years ago

What’s also awful is the garbage that amasses on 72nd St every time there is some super sneaker sale where kids hang out all night outside the stores where they are sold, tossing their garbage everywhere without a care in the world. Walking to the gym on a Saturday morning is a wretched undertaking.

If these store owners – who are presumably cashing in on these sneakers – would be considerate and put out a few trash cans (or better yet if the police would STOPPING THESE KIDS FROM CAMPING OUT ALL NIGHT) it might make a difference.

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RA
RA
11 years ago

I mentioned it before and will continue doing so in the hope that someone listens. The disgusting rodent problem in the area can be fought with simple measurements:
1. Owners of store front businesses as well as co-op and condo management should be made responsible for keeping the sidewalk right in front of their store/building impecable. During the hot days of summer they should hose down the street twice (day and evening)

2.Trash cans on the side of brownstones and small apt buildings, should be inside locked heavy metal containers so no animal can get in.

3. Trash cans on the street corners should be emptied regularly

4. City trucks should pick garbage up every evening and not let bags sit overnight,

5.If we want to go fancy or more century XXI, the city should check how they collect garbage in Barcelona and other cities in Europe, for example and adapt it for the size and needs of NYC
See link below. https://w110.bcn.cat/portal/site/MediAmbient/menuitem.37ea1e76b6660e13e9c5e9c5a2ef8a0c/?vgnextoid=437679583ad1a210VgnVCM10000074fea8c0RCRD&vgnextchannel=437679583ad1a210VgnVCM10000074fea8c0RCRD&lang=en_GB

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Ira Rousso
Ira Rousso
11 years ago

I recently spent some time in San Francisco. One thing that I noticed is that people were not allowed to eat or drink on their Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART). If we prohibited people from eating or drinking on the subways and buses, there would be less garbage for the rats to feed on. This is something that we should consider.

The rats are breeding underground. Take a walk through the 59th Street subway station and you will be hard pressed NOT to see a rat on the platform or the track.

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