BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | The Midtown South Community Council (MSCC) didn’t wait for spring to set their sights on removing a winter’s worth of clutter from local sidewalks. Last week’s March 16 meeting, held four days prior to the calendar’s change of seasons, saw attendees determined to remove derelict bikes, clip off milk crates from signposts, and promote the city’s “Adopt-a-Basket” program.
The group is also studying the idea of establishing a modular news rack program similar to the one run in Midtown East by the Grand Central Partnership (GCP), in the hopes of eliminating the scattershot placement of news boxes that currently dot the neighborhood.
“What we’ve got around the neighborhood are these plastic magazine holders, and they’re always beaten up and look atrocious,” John A. Mudd, the council’s president, said at last week’s meeting. “Our plan is to get rid of them — put something out there that’s nice.”
Eugene Sinigalliano, the council’s beautification director, concurred, saying the “massive amounts” of holders are a problem. “At their best [they] sit there, and half are empty and they’re ugly and they can put them wherever they want,” he said. “At worst, [they’re] dumped over and [used as] tables for the homeless, beds for the homeless, chairs for the homeless.”
Recently, Sinigalliano, Mudd, and Kathy Kahng of CityRax walked around Midtown to see how many boxes there were, and counted 128 individual holders. Kahng manages a modular news rack program for the GCP, which is a large business improvement district (BID) from Fifth to Second Aves., and E. 35th to 54th Sts.
Fifty publishers participate in the program, which she noted was voluntary. “We provide them with news racks and they put their publications in,” Kahng explained to those gathered at The New Yorker hotel (481 Eighth Ave., btw. W. 34th & 35th Sts.).
There are five other programs like this in the city, she said, and some have received grants from city councilmembers. The grants have covered capital expenses; however, there is still a need for funding for upkeep, she said.
Kahng said, “The reason you don’t see too many of these programs is because it’s expensive. And to turn around and say, ‘Okay, well I’m going to make the publishers pay for that’ — there’s too many First Amendment concerns. So really unless you have a third party like yourselves or one of the BIDs to underwrite the program and manage it, it’s not going to happen.”
The council is sponsoring a design contest for the multi-box units with Mudd saying in a March 20 email that details will be released soon. In addition to the holders, the council has been cleaning up the sidewalks in Midtown. “We’re just going to clear the trash in the streets — the excess trash,” Mudd said. “The derelict bikes, the bikes that have been chained to either the fence or the signposts for a long time. Try to make the neighborhood look a little bit nicer.”
At the last cleanup operation on Feb. 24, the council put up signs warning people not to attach things to city property, Mudd said in an email. Sinigalliano said at the meeting that they want to be slightly more aggressive when it comes to things that are chained to city property but has some value. “Some of the stuff has been there a long time but we can’t truly call it derelict. If it has value we can’t just throw it out, it has to be vouchered,” he said.
The council is also helping to promote the Department of Sanitation’s “Adopt-a-Basket” program, Sinigalliano said. “It’s a very simple program and very ingenious. Basically, Sanitation can’t empty the baskets as fast as some baskets in very busy areas fill up. So rather than overflowing all over our streets and creating a hazard, businesses agree to adopt a basket,” he explained.
Sanitation gives bags to the businesses, which have employees close the bag when it’s full, remove and then replace it, he said. Businesses can also sponsor a basket as well.
Inspector Russell Green thanked the council for its beautification efforts, and said, “Once it’s brought to your attention, you really realize how cluttered everything can get — it’s an eyesore, it’s a danger, it just really piles up… more chains, hand trucks, and racks. I’ve never even heard of anyone recognizing it, never mind taking the initiative to see how to remove it.”
Green said that 85 percent of the crimes that the Midtown South Precinct deal with are grand larcenies and robberies. Theft often occurs when property is left unattended, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is currently preparing to launch a campaign that will remind people to “Watch Your Stuff.”
“The inspector mentioned it earlier in his report that grand larceny is a huge problem and he’s absolutely right,” said Edgar Yu of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office (manhattanda.org). “It’s not a problem just in Midtown South but, in fact, accounts for 70 percent of the indexed crimes south of 59th. [For] all 10 precincts south of 59th St., grand larceny continues to be a huge problem.”
Yu said the office has designed a “multi-faceted campaign and social media strategy” to help address the issue. “The reality is, this can be prevented,” he said, referencing the goal of their upcoming “Watch Your Stuff” initiative.
The Midtown South Community Council, a not-for-profit 501c3 organization, is devoted to building better neighborhoods and stronger relationships within midtown South of Manhattan, which stretches from 29th St. to 45th St., and Ninth Ave. to Lexington Ave. Visit midtownsouthcc.org. For more info about the “Adopt-a-Basket” program, visit www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/contact/programs/adopt-a-basket.shtml.
