Thursday, March 3, 2011

End the Litter in Prospect Park


To The Woods!

Below is the open letter I have sent to local bloggers. I also sent another query about Prospect Park litter to Parks, via the form on the their website, and we will see if this one - the 3rd - receives a response. 

I am drafting emails to Kevin Jeffrey, Borough Commissioner for Brooklyn, who, it seems, vowed publicly last October to fight litter in the park, which is promising, and to Adrian Benepe, Commissioner of Parks. 

I suspect that we will be met with one word: Budget, so we have to find ways around that. Or fix it.

Some early responses to the letter below are very encouraging, and we are hoping to engage a broad spectrum of the community that uses and runs Prospect Park.

Please get in touch if  you have good ideas or feel you can help.


Dear Bloggers and Photographers

http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com/2011/03/prospect-parks-litter.html

I am a fellow Brooklyn resident and blogger and am in the very early stages and figuring out how to fix the significant and unique-in-flavor litter problem in the wooded areas of the park near and around the Vale of Cashmere and Rick's Place.

 Picture courtesy of Google Maps.

I am aware that there is significant litter in Prospect Park after major holidays and events, but I perceive this one as hidden, continuous and ignored by the official custodians of the park.

One of my first steps is to approach local bloggers to help spread a co-ordinated message, and to ask for ideas. If you feel it's a lost cause, and that litter is something we have to accept, this is not for you. I am not a natural committee animal - I just know I can't do this on my own. I need help.

These woods are a unique part of the park ('the only forest in Brooklyn' as the Prospect Park Alliance website states) and are avoided due to what I perceive as active neglect (yeah, I know) on the part of the Parks Department and the cruising activities that make this area famous or notorious, depending on one's point of view and inclinations.

Much of the nastiest litter here is sex-related - condoms, wrappers, lube, wet wipes, tissue paper, plus all the ordinary stuff: plastic bags, bottles, alcohol and non-, endlessly.

I'm not trying or hoping to stop the cruising. Although sex between strangers in public makes me skittish. But I am trying to stop the scourge of litter which makes these woods foul, sad and decrepit.


Through the blogs I would like to draw the attention of: the public, neighborhood associations, and most especially the Parks Department. They are simply not doing their job.

My point is simple: This is part of a famous public park. This amount and type of litter is unacceptable.

The conversation we need to have:

With Parks
: What is your trash policy? How is it enforced? And if a certain tree is a favorite spot for sex, put a trash can there. Then empty it. It is very easy to ID popular spots. Just look for the used condoms. And beef up sanitation patrols in the area to pick up what is left. Co-ordinate with public volunteers. Be present.
With the public: this is real woodland, and it is FOUL. Tell the Parks Department about it, and ask them to fix it. Volunteer some time for a clean up. Write to your congressperson. Visit the woods. Be present.
With the men:  Pick it up. Throw it away. In a trash can.

Preliminarily, I would like to ask those of you who are interested in helping tackle this issue to let me know. Then we can decide on a day for an organized blog blitz of information. A set piece of the bare basics and info, plus a personal take with your own pictures, on the situation. And then regular, timed follow ups. Co-ordination with local newspapers, forums and zines. I would appreciate any other ideas, too.

'Frinstance: an online petition to be delivered to the Commissioner of Parks and the Mayor, a collaborative blog dedicated to solving the problem...

I am writing to the Commissioner of Parks and the Borough Commissioner of Brooklyn. Two online queries last year went unanswered, and these will be more formal in nature.
 
______________________________________________________________________________


There it is. Sign up if you dare. Click my profile picture for email.

]Read comments here at original post]

1 comment:

Marie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.