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Prospect Park, brooklyn's greenest garbage dump — Brooklynian

Prospect Park, brooklyn's greenest garbage dump

opossumqueen
opossumqueen
edited November -1 in The Lounge / Random Stuff

Since I've spent my fair share of time complaining about Googa Mooga's presence and damage to the park, I think it only fair to mention that others also treat it like crap. I just wanted to point out that the park takes a lot of abuse.

After a holiday weekend with nice weather, the park is COVERED in trash. The main official picnic areas (like the Picnic House and 9th St grill areas) were cleaned up pretty well of bagged trash by 7:30am today, but the meadows and many other areas were a huge mess. As soon as I got into Long Meadow off leash with the dog he started finding plenty of bones and meat packaging just tossed in the grass. The dog beach was loaded with floating trash (lots of drink bottles) and who knows what was at the bottom.

The Nethermead was particularly trashed--tons of food and packaging scattered all around and huge piles of trash (not all bagged). The Peninsula was probably the cleanest spot but bad enough that after a couple of minutes there, I just took the dog back in the woods to get away from the worst of the trash.

Even as the park adds more garbage cans and dumpsters, many people just throw everything down on the ground around them or don't securely bag the trash. Even bagged trash frequently gets opened by raccoons at night, who then spread it around more.

It's far from pretty in the park after nice weekends in the summer, not just holiday weekends. I don't think there's one solution but I wish people who come out to enjoy the park would do a better job of leaving it as they found it.

Comments

  • pragmaticguy
    pragmaticguy

    Unfortunately the park is no different than city streets when it comes to people who are too lazy to walk a few feet to a garbage can. Just because there's grass doesn't give it a different status than the concrete of sidewalks. Until people have a vested interest in keeping any areas clean they won't. And that's not going to happen until they think of "the" park as "my" park.

  • opossumqueen
    opossumqueen

    This is my problem--I think of it as my park and am too easily upset about this kind of treatment.

    The park actually could use several more dumpsters (which are harder to steal than the cans) in the summer--there's that much trash.

    I also wish they could better enforce littering laws. I used to think it was probably impossible to catch people in the act until I walked all the way around the all the picnic areas one day, including around the lake, and saw how obvious and blatant it was. The lake area made it extra clear since people were tossing trash (plastic cups, napkins, food scraps) into the water--there's no saying, "but I was going to pick it up before I left" in that case.

    People show up with more than just food. I've seen all kinds of big trash--whole grills, dining room chairs, recliners, tables--left behind. Sometimes it's kind of hilarious to realize someone dragged this stuff out to the park.

    I'm just sore nobody offered me Tupper Thomas's job when she left :) I was so ready to run that park.

  • pragmaticguy
    pragmaticguy

    Take solace in knowing that you're not alone in your contempt for these people. They are the same type that frequent beaches and throw cigarettes or other trash out their car windows while on the highway. I would love to throttle these dopes whenever I see them do it but we have to live with those of us who do not share our concern for others. Maybe it comes from movie theaters where people just leave empty candy/popcorn containers, drinks, etc, either on the floor or near their seats because they know the aisles are cleaned in between each show.

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