Litter Patter and the Scoop on Poop

SeabytheCity.com recently ran a post (or, shall we say, a rant) on the litter and poop situation in Long Beach.

I say, “Welcome to my world!"

Back in July, Judy Rudnic and I presented a proposal to the City Council for two street sweepers (the human kind) that would cover W. Beech St. from New York Avenue to Nevada from Memorial Day to Labor Day from 7am to 4pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

(Full disclosure: Our original concept featured alternate side of the street parking, but we since backed off on that for obvious reasons.)

Street sweepers would be able to keep on top of the litter that accumulates on Beech St. all day during the summer months. Plus, it’s not just about the litter...

It’s keeping the garbage from piling on trash receptacles, sanitizing them, replacing the trash liners, (YES! We need plastic receptacle liners so that the trash cans don’t smell in the summer heat!), and removing errant cans and bottles from shrubs, walls, parking lots throughout the day.

When the Patch picked up this question on its site, several commentators remarked that litter free sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owners.

Yes and no.

The Long Beach City Sanitation Code requires that property owners sweep the sidewalk in front of their property and 18” in the street every day before 10am. Well, that may cut it after Labor Day, but even if every single merchant complied, I guarantee you that before High Noon; the West End would look like Dodge City again.

Not only that, almost half of Beech Street is fronted by city parking lots, a school, library, and empty lots. I want those streets clean when the taxpayers are out there waiting for a bus.

There’s nothing more disheartening than standing amidst cigarette butts and beer bottles when you’re on your way to work to pay the taxes to pay the sanitation dept.

West End Beautification Association (WEBA) presented two options to the City for covering the cost, because we certainly don’t want to go down a road that spells overtime:

• Summer Specials: Grab two of those guys who are ticketing cars and hand them a broom and a rolling garbage can

• Bill the Bars: Well, not just the bars. Lots of commercial districts, many in Nassau County (like Westbury, Great Neck, Glen Cove), have programs called Business Improvement Districts (BID). 

A BID is “authorized under state law as a mechanism to provide general public improvements in downtown business areas, such as façade improvements, benches,…..A BID may levy an additional, mandatory tax on businesses that operate within a geographical area….”

Well, unless I lost you at mandatory tax, let me explain how our modified version would work: We estimate that the annual cost of the street sweepers would be approximately $11,500 for the season (2 men @ $12 per hour x 7.5 hours per day x 4 days a week x 12 weeks), plus equipment costs and insurance. 

We’ve identified 34 businesses that sell food and/or beer and liquor. Within that number, 12 would be assessed $500 for the season (based on their size), and 22 would be assessed $250. 

And for that modest cost, we could all enjoy a clean, attractive commercial district!

Dropping litter, extinguishing cigarettes on the street, not picking up after your dog becomes easier when the streets are dirty to begin with.

Let’s stop this downward spiral now: take back our community’s dignity.

Get Beech Street clean and green and then step up police enforcement.  

(Whatever happened to those two Segway vehicles that were donated to the LBPD?)