CJS Decision 2024

Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood on Tuesday, September 10 at 3PM

The population of Bedford-Stuyvesant is growing, and, according to residents, so is the garbage on the streets. Residents have to contend with sidewalks piled high with trash - and a proliferation of rats. 

“We have real bad rats, especially in the middle of the night,” said Astra Hill. The 24-year-old described walking in the middle of the street to avoid rats when coming home late from work. “They just scared the life out of me and they're aggressive,” she said, wincing in disgust.  

The rodent problem, residents say, stems from another issue: a lack of adequate trash removal and street cleanliness in the neighborhood. In Bedford-Stuyvesant, it’s not uncommon to see garbage stacked on the sidewalks. According to Community Board 3’s needs statement for fiscal year 2025, trash removal and street cleanliness is the third most pressing issue in the neighborhood, just behind affordable housing and parks and open space.

Compounding this problem is population growth. Since 2010, the district's population has increased by 14 percent, leading to more trash. 

“It's gotten worse over the years,” said Lamine Touve, a 35-year-old employee of Le Baobab restaurant on Fulton Street. Touve said that his restaurant is not allowed to put its trash on the street. Instead, employees place trash into special containers which are then stored in the restaurant’s basement before it is collected by the department. 

The New York City Department of Sanitation’s website states that garbage must be placed outside after 6 or 8 p.m, depending on whether it's in a bin or a bag. As of March 2024, businesses must place trash into containers. 

The city has also tried various approaches such as the alliance organized between the city and Sanitation Foundation in June 2023. The project, entitled the Clean City Alliance, deployed a privately-funded workforce team to deliver additional sanitation services on the city's main avenues. The new efforts started on Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy and Utica Avenue in Crown Heights.

Why, then, is there still so much garbage in the streets? 

A source from the Department of Sanitation, who requested anonymity out of fear for her job, offered a possible partial explanation.  

According to the department, all businesses must hire a carter licensed with the Business Integrity Commission (BIC) for the collection of trade waste. But according to the source from the Sanitation Department, some businesses don’t pay or renew their licenses and instead place their waste in front of residential buildings. 

Touve said he has witnessed businesses dump their trash outdoors. 

“I have already seen someone who had construction waste take it during the night and put it somewhere else,” he said. 

He added that someone once put garbage cans in front of his restaurant. “The sanitation officers came and we had to open our garbage cans to show them it wasn't ours,” Lamine said. 

An example of a license for the collection of trade waste to be placed on business storefronts

The Department of Sanitation employee pointed out that this situation then falls back on the sanitation workers, who end up being blamed by residents for the streets’ condition. 

Hill understands people's frustration with the sanitation department but she also thinks that workers are not paid enough to deal with these kinds of issues. “These are people that have to deal with leaking garbage and rats all the time,” she said. 

Budget cuts to sanitation programs have not helped, and New York City Council has called on Mayor Eric Adams to restore city-wide investments into programs that support cleanliness and sustainability, like curbside composting and installation of litter baskets. 

Despite the community’s needs, the only candidate running for the Assembly House in District 56 in the November election has never sponsored a single bill related to street cleanliness. Stefani Zinerman has been District 56's representative since 2020, and is currently serving a third consecutive term. 

Zinerman has publicly stated that she wants to exterminate the rats in the neighborhood.

But four years since she first took office, the assemblywoman has yet to address the root cause of the problem in her district. The amount of trash lining the streets of Bed-Stuy is what attracts rodents to the neighborhood.

Residents say that in addition to the need for a more substantial sanitation budget, the city needs to enforce existing rules and ensure businesses and residents comply with them. 

“I know they implemented certain times where you're supposed to put your trash out. But they don't enforce it and it doesn't change anything because sanitation is not coming to pick it up,” Hill, a local resident, said. 

She understands why businesses may not want to pay an additional fee for the city to pick up their trash. 

“They're charging exuberant prices for the license. And by forcing them to pay, they're subjugating everybody else to being stuck with the rats,” Hill said. “They’re not harming the business. They're just harming the rest of us.”