Poor parts of Brooklyn's Red Hook nabe have fewer trash cans than gentrified streets, study finds
There's a major trash divide in
Red Hook, with the blocks around the public housing projects far more filthy than the gentrified areas, according to a new study.
After spending weeks patrolling the streets counting trash cans and litter, six high school seniors from the Red Hook Houses found far more trash cans in the tony part of the neighborhood.
On Van Brunt St. between
Verona and Van Dyke Sts., a popular strip for restaurants and shops in recent years, the students counted 11 trash cans, but didn't find even one garbage can on the same stretch along Columbia St., near the projects.
"It's like two different neighborhoods," said
Karin-Jolie Rosado, 18, a senior at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies and one of the surveyors.
"I didn't even realize the difference until I actually started paying attention and when I went out and did the survey."
The students surveyed the blocks after school this spring with the community group Red Hook Initiative, which is hosting a cleanup session tomorrow, targeting some of the neighborhood's dirtiest spots.
"All that trash is just kind of there in our environment," said Red Hook Initiative advocate
Maribeth White, 24. "You can't take pride in your community if it looks like crap."
The most trash-strewn sections of the neighborhood, the students found, were on the residential streets surrounding the Red Hook Houses, where neighbors had dumped everything from wrappers and household trash to boxes and mattresses.
"There's not enough garbage cans and the ones that are here, they're in the good part of Red Hook," said
David McCoy, 17, a senior at
John Jay Secondary School for Journalism who is heading to
Virginia State University in September.
"From Van Brunt to Pioneer St., there's five garbage cans in only a two-block radius, but if you come down towards Richard and King Sts. there are actually none," he said.
"It made me feel in a way, like Van Brunt St. is for the higher-class people."
The students ranked trash levels on a scale of zero to three, with three being the dirtiest. Not one block on the "back" section of Red Hook ranked higher than a one.
"I don't litter so it bothers me to know there are other people out there that do litter," said student Shaniqua Smith, 17. "I would like to see more garbage cans and less litter because it will make our whole community better."
A Sanitation Department spokesman did not return calls for comment.
To help clean up with members of the Red Hook Initiative Saturday, call (718) 858-6782.
