The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Holy Smokes! BEAT COPS COMING TO FLATBUSH!!

So the Q wrote up a petition a few weeks back. Hundreds of you signed it. I brought it to commander Jack Lewis's office at the 71st. He said he'd see what he could do. Did I really think it would happen? Even the ever-optimistic Q had his doubts.

Ten minutes ago I get a text from Jack:

HEY TIM:

I have some good news. They beefed us up with personnel. I am assigning beat cops to Flatbush and Nostrand. We are having the community council meeting tonight. We need to set up a meeting so we can introduce the beat officers to the neighborhood. - Jack

We all made this happen together. Now we need to welcome these guys and make sure we get off on the right foot. More soon...


19 comments:

Stephanie said...

This is awesome. Great job, Q!!!

Anonymous said...

Great work, Q!

MargaretBKelly said...

Thanks, Q! This is great!

I moved to an apartment on Bedford near Linden a few weeks ago and have become increasingly depressed by the trash buildup on the streets. There's a particularly awful trash pileup on Caton near Bedford and Flatbush, which I walk past every day on my way to work. A large garbage bag left on the street outside a laundromat (can't recall its name) seems to have split and the trash has flooded onto the street.

I just saw that someone mentioned the trash problem in a comment on the beat cop online petition site. Is there anything we can do about this? Would 311 calls make any difference? I suspect that many local businesses violate city law by dumping their trash in the trashcans (and there are so few of them!) or leaving it out on the street. Can we call to complain about particular businesses?

diak said...

Wow. Well done!

MargaretBKelly said...

Should have added this in my previous post: my email is margaretbkelly@gmail.com, if anyone would like to discuss this. I'd love to figure out a way to do something about the horrendous trash issue.

Maggie Kelly

Anonymous said...

Boom! Tremendous work!

Anonymous said...

AWESOME!!!! Cannot wait to greet our new cops!

Anonymous said...

Awesomness... I will be sure to introduce myself.

Anonymous said...

Q -you're the man! This is terrific news. Job well done!I can't wait to meet them.

Anonymous said...

we've been trying to get this for years...hope it's not an empty promise!

Anonymous said...

Now that our petition worked for adding new cops to the neighborhood, how about drafting a petition to the sanitation dept, so that they can clean, and pick up garbage more frequently on our streets?
While they're at it, they can start ticketing merchants, and building owners that don't clean after their properties. We also need more garbage cans all along Flatbush. Your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU Q! I respect your perseverance!

Anonymous said...

Great news! Thanks for being our voice!

Anonymous said...

Regarding merchants that do not keep their sidewalk spaces tidy, we could deliver a petition that states that as a community we will boycott their establishments until they clean up their act. Although, I don't know who frequents some of the worst offenders.

Anonymous said...

Phenomenal. Hoping this happens

Anonymous said...

Q-great news! Thank you for being a champion of our neighborhood.You're the man.

Anonymous said...

so great to hear, looking forward to seeing them and saying hello.

shelley said...

Q, thanks for all your hard work. Thanks to all that signed the petition to get Beat Cops. Looking forward to them strolling the neighborhood, and actually knowing the people that call PLG home.

Now about the trash. My husband and I operate a store on Flatbush Ave, which happens to be on a corner which means we get wind from two directions creating a whirlwind of trash in front of our store. I've swept six times today (no joke) getting a full garbage bag of trash each time, my super said he swept twice before we opened at 9:30am. As I'm writing this comment I see a fast food container and several bags swarming in front of our door. I'm sure it looks to those that walk by that I haven't swept all day. Yes, there are some merchants who really could care less about this neighborhood, they open their store, stay the day, then go home to another neighborhood, but there are those who do care and are trying.

The one thing that could help the garbage situation on Flatbush. Is to switch all the bins to the fancy dancy trash cans that are taller with a narrow opening at the top, this eliminates merchants and neighbors from using the trash cans for their home or business, it also eliminates trash from being swept out of the bin from the wind (which happens quite often) According to DSNY, one option to get the fancy trash bins, is to get our City Councilman (Eugene) or State Senator (Adams) to fund them for us. In this retail area we don't have a BID or an "active" merchants association that makes it a bit harder for things to get done within the commercial strip. I've been (lightly) inquiring about BIDS, hooking onto an existing BID, etc. As many of you may or may not know it's a process and a lot of work. I was just given information on a BID Lite program (if the city went forward with the BID Lite idea, it's a bit unclear right now) that could be a solution, but either way we're a long way from anything like that happening. (IMHO).

I think that as of now, record which areas have trash issues so that it can be addressed with the Community Board. Ms. Miles has been terrific in helping us combat this.

shelley said...

Anon 8:27pm
The merchants just got a letter yesterday stating that if they don't have a valid carter's permit they will get a ticket from DSNY, though this ususally doesn't have any effect (I've found out), the offenders pay the fee then keep going. IF they got a ticket each month, then we would see a change because at that point it would be worth them paying the $32 or so each month to get their garbage picked up.

I do agree that it would be nice to see more trash cans on the strip. A few weeks ago a trash bin near us was taken away. DSNY does this due to "overuse" Overuse = people/business putting their household trash into it, which happens quite a bit.

I've talked to DSNY about their pick-up rotation. One of my biggest complaints is that they don't empty the bins on Friday going into Saturday, which is one of the highest pedestrian traffic days.