Let's Clean Sunset Park!

M.I.A

2011-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Sorry for disapearing for a while. The park is under new managment, I got in touch with Walter (very helpful by the way), who re-directed me to the new park manager, who sadly has been impossible to reach. I emailed him about 14 times, and went in person to leave him messages. After a month of trying to find someone to help me with tools, I found out I was pregnant! and since then we have moved temporarily to Park Slope while we renovate our apartment. So for the last 3 months we haven't been in SP.
We should be back by Mid September and should have about 4 possible clean ups to do before the weather gets to chilly.
Thanks!!!!!

DO POOP - POOPER SCOOPER LAW

2011-04-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stepped on a dog poop? There's something you can do about it: http://www.nyc.gov/apps/311/allServices.htm?requestType=service&levelOneId=D7C8F010-05B5-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE&levelTwoId=D7C8F010-05B5-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE-3&levelThreeId=D7C8F010-05B5-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE-3-0&serviceName=Dog+or+Animal+Waste+Complaint&finalSubLevel=3&intentId=E9E66310-8137-11DE-8E9F-96DAE110FEB8

Dog or Animal Waste Complaint

The City requires property owners to clean up animal waste on their property and adjoining sidewalks and gutters even if they do not own the pet, stray, or wild animal making the waste. It is not illegal to feed stray animals, but the City may issue a violation to the property owner for any unsanitary conditions created as a result. The City accepts reports of animal owners or property owners who fail to clean up unsanitary conditions or odors due to animal waste in backyards, private lots, residential or commercial buildings, and other areas. The City enforces the Pooper Scooper Law and accepts reports of places where dog walkers regularly fail to pick up after their dogs. These locations include streets, sidewalks, and other areas such as open front yards next to the public sidewalk. A City agent must see the crime taking place in order to give a ticket. The Pooper Scooper Law does not apply to guide dogs or service dogs walking with people who have disabilities. Report dog or animal waste:

On a City street or sidewalk

On private property

In a park

Check link for numbers to contact.

A lovely story

2011-04-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

So, as many of you know, I am very verbal when people litter (garbage and poop), If I see a person throwing something on the floor or sneaking away with out picking up their dog poop- I WILL SAY SOMETHING. In the past year I've probably talked to 1-2 people a day about picking up after themselves, usually I'm encountered with " Mind your own business" "F' Off" "I pay my taxes" "You pick it up" " Everyone else does it". When words and patience don't work I resort to threatening to call the cops, but in the end everyone picks up after themselves. So, there was this one older man who I saw every night in the park with his dog, he would never pick up his dog poop no matter how much I tried to explain to him the effect it had on his park and his community. After talking (harassing) him daily for about 16 days, he finally had enough and started bringing a bag with him. YAY!. A few days ago I ran into him on the street and he said that he is now telling other people to pick up their garbage! :) And he says he recently stepped into one of those unpleasant piles and couldn't believe he use to be the cause of it. 1 down, many many many more to go.

ITS GETTING WARMER!

2011-04-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello Lovely People; The weather is once again getting warm. Which means that Sunday park clean ups will be taking off. This year we already have a handful of new volunteers, which is very exciting. Although I have to say that the Park's Department has really been kicking up their cleanups. Ive seen men and women with brooms, garbage cans, picks pretty much daily. Now if the park could just STAY clean, we wouldn't need volunteers. Cleans ups will beging in May, as soon as the date is confirmed I'll let you know and you can tell me if we will be seeing you (so I can order the right amount of tools). Im going away on a rather long vacation from May-June and my core organizer group has moved away, so if anyone would like to take over for those 2 or 3 Sundays I would appreciate it. Clean ups in 2011 will be the same as clean ups in 2010, Every OTHER Sunday, 930am-1145am, meeting in front of the Rec Center. We will be cleaning by area or full park depending on the "damage". If it rains clean ups are cancelled, even if the floor is wet from the night before. Please if you have an questions let me know!

2010 Update

2010-12-09T10:31:00.001-08:00

Hello All,
I am so sorry for the Park Clean Up hiatus. A lot has happened in the last few months, and it hasn't allowed me to keep up with the clean ups. Now that things are going smoother, It's too cold!!! So we will continue with the clean ups in 2011 when the weather is lovely once again.
I apologize. if you have any questions please let me know.

CLEAN UP TODAY SUNDAY 20th

2010-07-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

930am-1130am
Meeting in front of rec center
Silvia will be leading the clean up. She has a white dog called jack.
Hope you can make it!

NEXT CLEAN UP - Sunday 27th

2010-06-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hi All!
sorry for the late notice, this site hasn't been working very well.
Tomorrow is next clean up
Meeting in front of the rec center
930am-1130am

Hope to see you there!

CLEAN UP TODAY MAY 23rd!

2010-05-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time with this blog, sometimes it doesn't allow me to put up my posts. So sorry for not updating it.
We couldn't have the clean up last weekend because all the tools were given out for it's my park day.

So, the clean up is set for today, Sunday 23rd
from 930am-1130am
Meeting in front of the rec center.

It's supposed to start raining at 11, so we might have to call it a day earlier.

THANKS and,
Hope to see you there!

2010 Clean ups begin!

2010-04-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

1st 2010 clean up!!!

When? This Sunday the 18th
Time? 930am-1145am
Where? Sunset park, meeting in front of the rec center. 43rd st entrance.

Let's start the year strong, the clean ups will be every other week until the weather stops cooperating. Clean ups are cxld if it rains.

Please let me know if you can make it!

Hello Again!

2010-02-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hello All Happy New Year!
I've been trying to post something for months and it hasn't been working!
Thank you ALL for you help in 09 with the clean ups. We did GREAT work that we should all be very proud of.
Clean Ups will still be happening in 2010, less often, but still consistently. We will start when the weather gets nicer ( May ) and do the clean ups every other week until November.
Our goals for '10 are to create more litter awareness (try out new methods), get more volunteers, and increase our presence in the community.
I'll be better about updating the blog. I'm currently looking into smart ways of "complaining" about litter in our community.

LAST CLEAN UP this Sunday 22nd

2009-11-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

This Sunday November 22nd
LAST Volunteer based Sunset Park Clean up
930am-11:45am
Meeting infront of the Recreational Center

If you have gloves please bring them!

LET'S FINISH STRONG

Please confirm if you will be able to make it

Thanks!

No clean up this weekend

2009-11-06T15:54:00.000-08:00

NO Tools, No Clean up
This weeks Clean Up is canceled!
We will resume next weekend Nov 15th.
If you decide to go out on your own please be careful and use the right tools, we all know the secrets that lurk in the bushes. hehe.
Thanks!

Next Clean Up- Sunday 25th (one of the last)

2009-10-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

930-11:45am
Meeting in front of rec center
Bring gloves if you have any!
It looks like it's going to be a wonderful day
See you there!

This Saturday- Come out for It's My Park Day!

2009-10-22T09:50:00.001-07:00

Friends of Sunset Park has had to cancel their activities due to bad weather

The IMPD event will be taking place near the Comfort Station - 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues by the Playground between the hours of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Come out and help Friends of Sunset Park plant bulbs, weed, rake...and much much more!
http://friendsofsunsetpark-brooklyn.blogspot.com/
Thanks!

----

Hope to see you on Sunday as well ;)

Next Clean up- This Sunday 18th

2009-10-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

~weather permitting~
Time:9:30-11:45
Meeting in front of Rec Center
I won't be in town but the wonderful Jennifer will be taking over for the day.

Her email is: voxvocisATaolDOTcom

Please email her with any questions,
Remember to bring your gloves!

This clean up is one of our last so let's try to finish strong

Next Clean up - Sunday the 11th

2009-10-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday October 4th clean up was great, we saw 3 new faces. We are getting to know such great people through this process, including 10 year old Isabel. She had energy for days and kept the clean up up-beat throughout the 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Next clean up is this Sunday 11th
930-1200 noon
Meeting in front of the Rec Center

Please confirm, so I can ask for the right ammount of tools

Thanks!

Clean Up- Sunday October 4th

2009-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Date -SUNDAY September 4th (this Sunday)

Time- 930-1230

~We will be meeting in front of the Recreational Center~

Areas- Jeff will let us know, probably oval, and below 6th avenue.

Please confirm if you can make it so we can order the right amount of tools.

THANKS!

p.s- clean up is canceled if it rains

Clean Up CANCELED

2009-09-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Due to bad weather, tomorrow's clean up is CANCELED!
Thanks to everyone that was going to go and to Suet and Stephan for helping organize it.
See you next Sunday!

Sunset Park Clean Up

2009-09-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

Date -SUNDAY September 27th (this Sunday)
Time- 930-1230
-Clean Up is cancelled if it rains-

I will be away this weekend, but Suet Chan and Stephan will be "in charge", if you don't remember who they are, look at the photo from the last post- THAT'S THEM!
so if you have any questions please feel free to email them at:

Suet- suetteus AT gmail DOT com
Stephan- sobolowski AT gmail DOT com

**New: If possible please donate some money (25 cents, 5 $, 10$) we want to set up a table with coffee, snacks, pamphlets, and sign up sheets, please give your donation to Suet or Stephan**...thanks Allan for the $5

Ok back to clean up information-

~We will be meeting in front of the Recreational Center~

Areas- Jeff will let us know, probably around the large meadow (oval area) and more towards 5th avenue

Tools- Brooms are for sidewalk, paths, not for the grass areas.
Rakes- can be used for tree pits, green areas, areas where it's hard to reach the litter etc.
Pics- please give first dibs to women carrying a baby or pregnant.
Gloves- are for protection, please do not pic up many objects with your hands even if they have gloves, it's dangerous.

Dialogue- Last time we had 5 volunteers thanks to people talking with passerby's about what we were doing and how they could help. Let's keep this up!

Just as a reminder- We are picking up litter not leaves.

Please confirm if you can make it so we can order the right amount of tools.

THANKS!

2nd Clean Up Sucess!

2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the 14 volunteers that showed up on this beautiful Sunday morning. We had a lot of work to do, there was a lot of garbage but we managed to clean the whole area we were assigned as well as more. We got new names and emails and reached out to other community members about keeping their park clean. Not one person responded negatively, in fact a young man's newspaper was flying around everywhere (he was just going to leave it) but after talking to him he picked all the pages up! Everyone worked really hard and even though later on in the day there was some new trash, you can still see the difference thanks to all our efforts. Do you find yourself looking at the grass every time you go into the park now? I do! I look at new garbage, old garbage I can pick up, I watch over people, I'm more obsessed about it now that we've done some clean ups!!!

p.s Leah was a new volunteer today, she was awesome!

Leah I didn't your email or number but I wanted to thank you for coming out today!

2nd Clean Up!

2009-09-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Date -SUNDAY September 20th (this Sunday)
Time- 930-1230

~We will be meeting in front of the Recreational Center~

Areas- Jeff will let us know, probably around 44thst from 6th-7th ave. Let's stick to the areas Jeff asks us to work on.

Tools- Brooms are for sidewalk, paths, not for the grass areas.
Rakes can be used for tree pits, green areas, areas where it's hard to reach the litter etc.
Pics, please give first dibs to women carrying a baby or pregnant.
Gloves are for small or large pieces of garbage. If something looks dubious please use a pic or rake.

Dialogue- Last time we had 6 volunteers thanks to people talking with passerby's about what we were doing and how they could help. Let's keep this up!

Just as a reminder- We are picking up litter not leaves.

Please confirm if you can make it so we can order the right amount of tools.

THANKS!

Today

2009-09-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a great 1st clean up day!
We had about 20-22 people show up at various times. Jeff asked us to start infront of the rec center, move on to the tree pits on the sidewalk and finish off along the wall of 41st st. Because of the heavy rain and cold weather we didn't have too much garbage to pick up, but we all had our fair share of litter. Everyone was very enthusiastic! and did a great job. We left our assigned areas spic and span. Even though it might be dirty tomorrow, its ok! we still did something great for our park.
Next week (I'll put up the date and time soon) I want to focus more on picking up litter and not so much weeds or leaves. Today we had soooo many dead leaves that it was inevitable to pick some or all of them up.
Thank you all for showing up on a beautiful Sunday morning and for putting on your gloves and getting right to business, I think it filled us all with hope to see the great turn out. Let's keep it up!

SUNDAY 13th 9:30-12:30

2009-09-11T19:10:00.001-07:00

FIRST SUNSET PARK CLEAN UP DAY!

SUNDAY 13th from 930am to 1230pm

WE WILL BE MEETING INFRONT OF THE RECREATIONAL CENTER.

COME OUT FOR A MINUTE, FOR AN HOUR OR FOR ALL 3! ANY HELP IS EMBRACED AND THANKED!
NO PRESSURE, IF YOU CAN MAKE IT, GREAT! IF YOU CAN'T....MAYBE NEXT TIME??
WE WILL BE FOCUSING ON 3 AREAS, THE VOLLEYBALL COURT, THE FLAG POLE AREA AND THE LARGE MEADOW. THIS COULD CHANGE DEPENDING ON JEFF'S SUGGESTIONS.

WE HAVE THE TOOLS, WE HAVE THE PEOPLE, WE HAVE THE DESIRE TO PICK UP TRASH! (how can I make that sound fun?)
WE ARE READY TO GO!!!

We're ON!

2009-09-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being MIA
A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I haven't been laying around, trust me! I've been busy trying to get this clean up organized.
Where to start...
After the meeting with Eric Greene, I got in touch with Wylie Goodman, who by the way in awesome person, you know, one of those good people who are pretty rare to find. Anyways Wylie encouraged that I meet with the other groups and organizations that Sunset Park has. Meeting with the other groups would help clear up any questions about who I was and what I wanted to do as well as open dialogues about ways we can all help eachother.
So I did, I first met with the Garden Club, Manwa ( he helps out with any and every group ) introduced me to Frances Vargas, one of the Gardening Club members, we weeded and talked about the litter program. Frances was very excited and really encourages and supported the cause. Yay! music to my ears! That same day I met with Maria Rocca, the organizer of Friends of Sunset Park. She gave me some suggestions to think about and told me about a meeting that was going to happen in 10 days.
During those 10 days with the help of Wylie, Jeff Tolwinsky and Maurice, we set the date for the first Sunset Park volunteer based clean up. It will be THIS SUNDAY the 13th from 930am-1230pm we will be meeting in front of the RECREATIONAL CENTER. They very generously will be providing all the needed tools. As of now 17 people have confirmed they will be attending. If you are interested, come out for 1 minute, for an hour or all 3 hours! any help is embraced and thanked wholeheartedly! There is no pressure, if you can make it that's great, if you can't...maybe next time?
To continue...
Wylie helped bring all the different groups together for that meeting, Friends Of Sunset Park, Sunset Park Parents, Sunset Park Dog ( they couldn't make it ), our litter group (no name) and the Gardening Club. The meeting was tonight at the Recreational Center. I feel it was a step in the right direction, we all had a chance to speak and let our agenda's be known, we asked for help in our proyects like picking up litter and weeding, and we got to meet more people allowing our group to grow. We are all independent groups who work in areas tha we are passionate about, but we are also part of a larger picture and a larger community aiming towards the same cause. We all Love Sunset Park and give a piece of ourselvesto our neighboorhood hoping to inspire others to do the same.

Ball is still rolling

2009-08-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm still on top of everyhting! Just waiting for some confirmations and a green light. Will update the blog once I know more. Hopefully we can get a group organized to clean up in the next couple of days.

Summons Details

2009-08-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

I've been getting many comments about peoples thoughts on summons. I didn't publish the less respectful ones! But for those with constructive criticism, thanks!
OK, some people agree and some disagree with the issuing of summons, well I say let's see what happens!! Sometimes people need a little push to get with the program. This is a step in the right direction, let's try it out with a positive mind and see how it goes! maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but either way we are trying.
The truth is that many members of our community do not care about the community and these are the ones that are, pooping in the flower beds, peeing on the sidewalk, leaving behind whole lasagna plates by trees, having parties and not cleaning up... we will try to dialogue, try to inform and bring everyone to the same conclusion; that litter is BAD and it's up to us to fix this problem. But for those hard heads a summons IS the way to go.
I appreciate the suggestions, we are all in this together and all our ideas are important

Summons for Litterers at last!

2009-08-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

Great News,
Sarah and I just received a phone call from Eric Green.
Eric Green spoke to the Seargent at the Parks enforcement division and he agreed to post a guy in the park for one day to issue summons to litterers!
We are going to try and coordinate with Parks Enforcement so we can be there with our Sunset Park Conservancy outreach table the same day/time.
If interested in joining us please send me an email with all your information to singhcarol85@yahoo.om
Thanks!

The Meeting

2009-08-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

Today Paula and I met with Eric Green. He gave us almost 50 minutes of his time to answer questions, offer suggestions and explain exactly how the parks department works.
He understands our concerns and applauds our passion for cleaning sunset park, we had a few dissagreements but at the end we are all for the same cause.

Things that will take us in the right direction:

1- Contact Wiley Goodman the park outreach program coordinater and schedule a volunteer based cleanup in sunset park.

2- Eventually create a " SUNSET PARK CONSERVANCY".

3- With the help of Jeff Tolwinski we are going to set up a table at a Sunset Park entrance and encourage people to sign up for our clean ups, offer suggestions and more. We will also be offering educational panflets to those trully interested in our cause. Because we all know that just handing out panflets to anyone will just result in more litter!

4- Create an aliance with the 72 Precint. They have the power to ticket people who litter, the parks relationship with the precit is weak so we need to invite them (nicely) to join and be proactive with our agenda.

5- When a solid system is in place and a strong following we can start attacking the problem at the root! Karen Gripper Recreation Manager at Sunset Park is the person to talk too about oganizing lectures and programs to reach out to the surrounding schools and after school programs and educating the youth about the effects of littering.

This is a long term plan, but laying it out allows us to visualize our goals. I am going to call Willey tomorrow and see what ideas she has

Feel free to ask any questions.

This is a great start, now we have to follow through, and be consistent.

Meeting with Eric Green

2009-08-11T14:55:00.001-07:00

This email was forwarded to me:

hi friends, i just got off the phone with eric green, head of maintenance for all the parks in community board 7. you know how many parks that is? FORTY TWO!!!!anyway, i called him to discuss the garbage situation. he started out defensive, likely in response to my offensive tone (my bad), but i calmed down and we had an interesting discussion. he said he and his crew did the best they could but its impossible to catch up with the amount of garbage. he's got 10 people devoted to maintenance in sunset park but on any given day, only about 6 show up. They arrive between 8 and 8:30 to start cleaning but by 2 p.m. the park is a mess again. They leave at 7:30 pm. The park closes at 1 a.m. They don't necessarily have a chance to clean all the garbage before they go because their priority is the "comfort station," meaning that nasty bathroom complex that i think they should raze to the ground anyway.usually sunset park gets 3 "seasonal aids" for the summer but not this year. those positions were cut from the budget.he has one garbage truck for all 42 parks to go around and collect the full bags.of all 42 parks, he says the dirtiest are sunset park, rainbow park and martin luther park.he's going to be in the park tomorrow to meet someone who's offered to prune the trees (beats me) and we agreed to meet at 10:30 am in front of the pool complex to talk some more. if any of you would like to join, please do, and please pass this along to anyone else who might be interested (like carol, who's email address i don't have). not sure anything will come of it but i figure it can't hurt to have an open dialogue going. who knows -- maybe there's a citizens campaign somewhere in our future that involves getting the kids to start seeing litter as a bad thing and teaching their parents.eric says he's familiar with this group. maybe you are too, mayra? but not sure what they've done, litter-wise:http://friendsofsunsetpark-brooklyn.blogspot.com/that's all i got. maybe i'll see some of you kids tomorrow at 10:30paula

Poop is litter

2009-08-04T11:04:00.001-07:00

For those dog owners that don't pick up after their dogs, YOU ARE LITTERING!
No one likes to zig zag trying to avoid those unpleasant surprises. Not picking up after your dog is unsanitary. Ok, so you didn't have a bag? look for one. If you still can't find one, use a newspaper or anything else you can find. As a dog owner I undertsand that sometimes it is impossible to find anything to scoop your pups deeds with, so next time come better prepared and pick up a extra (random) poop just for good karma.
I was walking in the park the other day and saw an older man with a medium sized dog, thus a medium sized poo. I noticed that he didn't have a bag so I lingered around, to make myself useful of course. On the corner of my eye I noticed the man just leaving the poop and walking away. This poop was in the MIDDLE of the road where people were jogging, skatting etc. NO ONE SAID ANYTHING. I went up to him and handed him a bag and politely asked him to pick his dogs poop up. He apologize and got right to it. I lingered watching him closely. He pretended to pick up the poop but actually put a small stick into his bag. I walked back to him and this time insisted he pick up the poop, at this point a small group of "chepitos" had gathered around us. He awkwardly picked it up. I saw him again the next morning, with bags.

Sometimes it's hard to speak up and have to make people do things they should know to do in the first place, but I have to say I was happy at the outcome~! 1 down...how many more to go?

Remember

2009-08-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

SPEAK UP AND PICK UP!

A step in the right direction

2009-08-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Go to:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/contact_us/html/contact.html
Fill out the online form. Here you can comment or complain to the Commissioner about littering in Sunset Park.
If enough of these complaints are sent it will give us a better chance during public hearings.

Basics

2009-08-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

Where to start....
This blog is about Sunset Park and litter. It's intended to raise awareness about the effects of litter and to inspire people to speak up and be proactive in changing this neighborhood in a positive way. As I learn more ways to help fight this problem I will share them with everyone.

Waste is an unwanted or undesired material or substance. It is also referred to as rubbish, trash, garbage, or junk depending upon the type of material and the regional terminology. In living organisms, waste relates to unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from them.

We need to clean Sunset Park.
It can't be about more workers being assigned to clean after members of our community have littered, it must be about creating a consciousness and educating all the different cultures that use sunset park to STOP littering. We need to nip it in the bud.

Why oh Why?
Why do people litter?
Even if you don't know that litter causes damage to our waterways amongst other harmful things. It is impossibly hard for me to understand how people cannot simply SEE what litter does to our public space. It looks BAD, it SMELLS, everyone can see that. Then why do it? Culture? Laziness? Habit?....

We need more awareness.
We need more signs to be posted in visible places, park vendors need to be approached about keeping the immediate area around them clean, tickets should be issued, people have to speak up to those making our park/community dirty.

If you live in Sunset Park, you are part of the community and responsible for it. You have the chance to be involved in making the place you live in, better. You have a chance to share your ideas and be proactive in creating solutions to things that are important to you. We need people to be involved, only we can change the place we live in.