QUEENS

NYC Community Cleanup is a new citywide initiative designed to address neighborhood hot spots and eye sores. NYC Community Cleanup is putting low-level offenders to work repairing conditions of disorder throughout New York City. The goal is to create meaningful community service work projects that emphasize the values of immediacy, visibility, and accountability.

Offenders sentenced in the Criminal Court at 125-01 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens to perform community service are assigned to restitution projects organized by NYC Community Cleanup. The average sentence is one to ten days, and approximately 10-12 participants work on Cleanup each day, Tuesday through Saturday.

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RESULTS
Queensbridge Park Cleanup
On Saturday August 21, 2010, NYC Community Cleanup collaborated with Partnership for Parks, the NYC Parks Department, and the office of Council member Jimmy Van Bramer, to conduct a cleanup in Queensbridge Park. We spread mulch, raked leaves, painted benches, and distributed materials about our program. We were highly visible in this very well used park adjacent to the Queensbridge Houses, the city's largest NYCHA development. Park-goers were very appreciative.

On Saturday April 24 the Queens crew of NYC Community Cleanup traveled to Roy Wilkins Park with 10 clients to lend a hand in the celebration of Earth Day. The goal was to plant as many trees as possible, and it went well; everyone including the clients learned how much work goes into planting and caring for trees.

First we signed in with the Parks Department, who then gave us info on the project before we got to work. There is some skill that goes into planting young trees. We were shown the proper depth and how to set the trees so that they would not drown or be blown away.

During the day we found tons of bugs, even a snake, all while planting over 200 trees. By the end of the day everyone learned something that they did not know that morning, and was proud of what they had accomplished.

The members of the Parks Department were sad to see us go. As it was explained to us this was phase two of the planting process. The trees planted this past weekend are only temporary. In Roy Wilkins Park the young trees will grow bigger and stronger, readying them for their final planting throughout the city. Now that Parks saw what we can do they would like us to come back and give them a hand. We are more than happy to offer our assistance whenever the Parks Department needs it.

"Thank You," March 4, 2010
Dear Mr. Larino

My name is Arthur O'Meally. I serve on the Trustee Board of the Queens Historical Society.
Recently one of your crews cleaned up trash that had accumulated along the fence of a property owned by the Society.
The property is the Moore - Jackson Cemetery, dating back to Revolutionary times. It is a New York City landmark located on 51st Street between 32nd and 31st avenues in Woodside. For the past year I have been working at the site (alone) trying to change the image of the property and promote the fact that it is an historic place. It has been a most challenging task. I am heartened by the positive remarks I have recieved from members of the community,both young and old.
I anticipate the possibility of needing clean-up work to be done inside the cemetery itself at some time. Perhaps you could help with that as well.

Thanks again.
Art O.

December 2009
The Queens crew has handled 79 community service mandates so far. The crew has cleaned up and removed over 1,944 bags of trash and donated 72 man hours to local non-profits to assist with their operations (such as sorting and processing donations). The Queens crew has repaired 1,500 square feet of graffiti at one large site and contributed labor worth more than $10,000 to improving conditions in Queens neighborhoods and assisting local organizations, in Community Boards 1, 2, and 7.

Responding to Community Concerns:
In November, project staff attended a meeting of Community Board 2. At that meeting local residents complained about trash in the vicinity of 21st Street and 45th Avenue in Long Island City, and requested that litter baskets be placed on that street to control the trash. A representative from the Department of Sanitation informed them that it was possible to place baskets at that location, but that they might not want it; it wouldn't be possible to increase collection routes, and the residents might find that if the baskets weren't emptied frequently they might overflow and actually make the problem worse.
In response, NYC Community Cleanup agreed to take responsibility for maintaining new baskets, under the Department's "Adopt-a-Basket" program. At the December meeting of the Community Board, NYC Community Cleanup reported back that the Department had agreed to place new baskets at this location and Cleanup had agreed to ensure that they were maintained.

Fort Totten Beach Cleanup
On December 5th, NYC Community Cleanup having worked with the parks managers for Little Bay Park, next to the Throgs Neck Bridge in Bayside, Queens, came together for a much needed beachfront clean up project. Little Bay Park is a beautiful park that hosts events such as movies under the stars; the park has a new dog run and is one of the few parks in Queens with a boat launch area for boaters. Unfortunately as Parks Manager Michael Agnello explained it, "The tide comes in twice a day," and with it comes debris from the bay and from the park, which then gets deposited on to its beach front.

We brought out over 40 people to clean Little Bay Park's beachfront, including community service crews made up of NYC Community Cleanup clients who were completing a court mandate, along with project staff and members of the Red Hook Public Safety Corps, an Americorps service program whose member work in community courts and public safety agencies in multiple locations around the city.

With our combined efforts we managed to clean two areas completely. Early in the morning, with just a light rain failing, one crew went right to work cleaning the beach area used for the boat launch, and another crew took on the difficult task of cleaning the base of the jetty leading to another section of beach. Both crews removed piles of wood, many bags of trash, leaves, and other debris. Then, with all hands on deck, volunteers, staff, and clients worked together to clean the largest stretch of beach in the park. At this point we were not only fighting the clock, as high tide was coming in, we were also battling the elements as the rain became heavier, and the temperature got colder. By afternoon we had filled the park's garbage truck, having removed well over 200 bags of trash, and much, much more debris.

Several people using the park commented on how they were looking forward to being able to visit a beach which wasn't choked with trash and debris. The administrator responsible for Little Bay Park, Janice Melnick, was very appreciative of our efforts:

"I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your organization for the excellent job they did on the clean-up of the Little Bay Park beaches. This is a difficult job that does not get done often enough. Your crew came in and did an amazing job. You are very well organized and we were impressed with how hard everyone worked. It was a cold, wet, nasty day and many other people/groups would not have been as diligent and hard-working as you all were. Thank you."

November 12 2009
Leaves are very valuable to gardeners and farmers. As the leaves break down they turn back into nutrient rich soil, and it makes plants grow healthy and large. So the 240+ bags of leaves we collected today will be used by local gardeners as a non-chemical, all natural fertilizer.

The Astoria Park Alliance, in partnership with Queens Botanical Gardens, are testing out a new project called Leaf Fest, very similar to the city's popular "mulch fest" with Christmas trees. So while the Queens Botanical Gardens provides the equipment, and training, the Astoria Park Alliance will coordinate the collection, maintenance, and distribution of the leaves. Of course, they need a little help doing all this work. So they turned to NYC Community Cleanup.

Today's contribution will be appreciated by so many people. Some will use the leaves, others just appreciate the leaves being removed from their neighborhood, as it keeps them from having to rake them themselves, and lastly some will be glad to know that they won't just end up in a landfill somewhere taking up space for eternity. - Manuel Lariño

Operations in Queens began on Wednesday, November 4. Cleanup staff received assistance from the Department of Sanitation with identifying a neglected location in need of cleaning. For their first day, the crew went to 65th Street in Woodside, next to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. A few warehouses and neat rowhouses line one side of this street, and on the other well landscaped slopes and retaining walls next to the expressway, which have been planted by the city with groundcover and trees, are marred by litter and garbage dumped along the sidewalk. Cleanup staff worked with seven clients to remove 52 bags of garbage from the site.

On the second day of operations in Queens, Thursday, November 5, Cleanup staff worked with 8 clients to remove 77 bags of trash at 65th Street between 35th Ave & Broadway, 55th Street and 39th Ave (dead end block), and 39th Avenue between 57th & 58th Street.