Bay Ridge homeowners sue city over trash

Residents charge Sanitation Dept. won’t pick up garbage

July 19, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Barwell Terrace residents said the abrupt change in Dept. of Sanitation policy is causing them lots of headaches. Eagle photo by Paula Katinas

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The residents of Barwell Terrace say the de Blasio administration is trashing them… literally.

Homeowners living on the small, private street in Bay Ridge have filed a court action known as an Article 78 lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court against the city over garbage collections, or more specifically, the lack of garbage collections.

The residents charged that their lives are being turned upside down by a sudden shift in policy instituted by the Department of Sanitation of New York (DSNY) that is forcing them to haul their household trash all the way to the corner instead of leaving it in front of their houses as they had been doing for decades.

An Article 78 lawsuit is an action that seeks a reversal of a city policy.

The trashy trouble began back in February when DSNY sent a letter to homeowners informing them that sanitation workers would no longer be setting foot on their private street to collect the household garbage and that the new rule would go into effect in mid-March.

Barwell Terrace is a side street located on 97th Street between Third and Fourth avenues.

For years, sanitation workers had been getting off their trucks on 97th Street and walking onto Barwell Terrace to carry the trash cans to carts known as motorized litter patrol vehicles. The trash would then be transferred from the motorized litter patrol vehicle via a lift to the sanitation truck parked on 97th Street. But DSNY officials directed workers to discontinue the practice, residents said.

The new policy angered residents who now have to lug their trash cans as far as a city block.

“We’ve had home-side collection service for over 80 years on Barwell Terrace. The DSNY is required to give collection service to all residential buildings in the city of New York. From what we can tell there is no exception for homes on private streets and the fact that the city has been collecting our refuse that way for 80 years supports that practice,” resident Bill Larney said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the homeowners of Barwell Terrace and three other private streets in Bay Ridge that were similarly impacted by the policy shift; Wogan Terrace, Hamilton Walk and Lafayette Walk.

“They are in a unique situation because they live on dead-end blocks that are nestled off the main public streets,” Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann told the Brooklyn Eagle.

The community board is on the side of the residents against the city, Beckmann said.

Beckmann and Board 10 Chairperson Doris Cruz wrote to DNSY to complain.

In a letter responding to Cruz and Beckmann, Henry Ehrhardt, director of community affairs for DSNY, defended the agency’s policy.

“Under no circumstances will DSNY allow its workers to enter an alleyway or private street to provide collection services unless they are using the truck. This protects the safety of the workers,” he wrote.

Residents living on the public streets adjacent to the four private blocks are also upset by DSNY policy because it is causing trash to pile up outside their homes, Beckmann said. Not only is their own trash in front of their homes, but now their neighbors’ garbage is there too.

“The policy is pitting neighbor against neighbor. I don’t blame the homeowners for being angry. I wouldn’t want 20 neighbors’ trash in front of my house,” Beckmann told the Eagle.

Larney said the homeowners’ dispute is not with the sanitation workers, but with the city.

“We have great respect for the DSNY. The workforce labors tirelessly to keep our city safe and clean. Like all property owners in NYC, we pay taxes and we are entitled to that service,” Larney said.

A Notice of Petition against the city was filed on June 26. Stephen A. Harrison is the lawyer representing the residents.

“We are reviewing the petition and will investigate all of the relevant facts,” a spokesperson for the New York City Law Department told the Eagle.

CORRECTION: The original version of the article listed the incorrect date of the filing of the lawsuit. It was June 26, not July 16.