I live in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where I live with my parents in separate houses but in the same general area. There are many sources that people can throw their garbage at, however most buildings use a certain curb area to throw their garbage out on. Most of the Garbage piles are located in front or around housing building. We have garbage cans on corners, garbage bins set up for apartment buildings and recycling bins and machines in the local area.
Where I live at my dad’s is a pretty clean area except when garbage day approaches. The apartment building around throw their garbage out on the curb which isn’t visually pleasing but you get used to it. People also stop throwing stuff in the garbage cans but in the garbage piles. There are two super markets in an avenue radius both east and west. The supermarket in the picture is Fine Fare and does not really have garbage piles near it however it does have plastic and glass recycling bins right outside the entrance
There is a large street, E Houston St., which separates my dad’s and mom’s neighborhood, kind of. There is a gas station in the cross streets so lots of cars come by, which is also because the FDR is a few avenues away.
Now this is where the problem with rodents comes up. Hamilton Fish Park has garbage cans around the entrance and even recycling cans, but this is where I see a lot of rodent activity. There is a fence with foliage in it where the garbage cans are set up against. That provides them with a home that they can make borrows in and have easy access to food from the garbage. So that is why I took the pictures at night because that is when they are most active, but unfortunately I could not take a picture of them fast enough. This does concern me greatly because the rodents are living in an area that people of all ages play or hang out in, and that can cause diseases to spread. Also right across the street from the park is two apartment buildings that throw their garbage out on the curb before the garbage truck comes and picks it up. So this provides the rodents with a safe home and food for life basically.
On the corners of almost each block of both my parents neighborhood there is a garbage can, providing people the opportunity to not litter and keep our environment clean, but you can see in the pictures that the garbage cans are not full. Only the Garbage pile on the curbs in front and around apartment building seem to be where most of the loose garbage ends up, because that is where some people in the neighborhood think it should go It also has a great effect on our rodent problem. The best thing we could do, which is happening already, is get rid of their homes and fill up the holes. The next thing, which has not been done, is find a better way to place our garbage for the garbage trucks. In our last assignment the map ,Rodent Raid, where rat activity was found by the health department, showed that the area that I lived in was highly active which I found not as a surprise, though I do hope it gets better.
-Majestic Rivas
