Volunteers Needed for April 30th - Keep America Beautiful Planting in Farmers Oval, Glendale, Queens

On Saturday, April 30th, volunteers will come together starting at 10 AM at the corner of Shaler Ave. & 65th adjacent to NYC's Mafera Park to complete the second phase of a community beautification project in Farmers Oval. The project will transform this neglected NYC DOT property into a green streets project.


The April 30th event involves planting trees, shrubs, and other plants. Tools will be provided. individual volunteers and groups are cordially invited to participate. Volunteers are still needed. Scouts and students can earn volunteer service hours through their participation.

Volunteers should call CURES Co-Chair Mary Parisen at 718-772-6563.

There will be a third event on May 14th (rain date May 15th) when volunteers will complete any remaining cleaning and planting and celebrate the completion of the project adjacent to Mafera Park. Additional cleanup and planting later this spring will beautify the corner of Cypress Hills and Shaler. $6,000 in grant funds has been received for these projects: $1,000 from LOVE YOUR BLOCK/Citizens Committee for NYC, and $5,000 from Keep America Beautiful/Waste Management. The funding received is being used mainly for plantings that will permanently beautify the area.

The public-private partnership that is making these improvements possible includes the following individuals and organizations:

• CURES (Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions)
• FOCA (Farmer's Oval Civic Association)
• Greater Ridgewood Restoration Corp.
• Harry Muller (Master Gardner)
• Citizens Committee for NYC/LOVE YOUR BLOCK grant program
• NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
• NYC Department of Transportation
• NYC Department of Sanitation
• Grow NYC
• Waste Management/Keep America Beautiful grant program
• Glendale Volunteer Ambulance
• Anthony Tranchina Contracting Corp.
• LIRR/ MTA New York & Atlantic Railway
• NYPD
• Hunter College School of Social Work internship program

Weather Emergency Declaration Issued by Mayor...

New York City Office of Emergency Management
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
12:30 PM

WEATHER EMERGENCY DECLARATION

At the direction of the Mayor, the public is hereby advised that significant snowfall has been forecast for the evening rush hour tonight, through tomorrow's morning rush hour. The snow is forecast to taper off this afternoon before becoming more severe this evening and overnight.

1. The public is urged to avoid all unnecessary driving for the duration of the storm and until further directed, and to use public transportation wherever possible. If you must drive, use extreme caution. Information about any service changes to public transportation is available on the MTA website at http://www.mta.info/.

2. Any vehicle found to be blocking roadways or impeding the ability to plow streets shall be subject to towing at the owner's expense.

3. Effective immediately, alternate side parking, payment at parking meters and garbage collections are suspended citywide until further notice.

4. The Emergency Management, Fire, Police, Sanitation, and Transportation Commissioners will be taking all appropriate and necessary steps to preserve public safety and to render all required and available assistance to protect the security, well-being and health of the residents of the City.

Public Advocate Bill De Blasio Sends Letter of Inquiry to Administration Regarding Storm Response

The letter below was sent today by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and heads of City agencies and departments involved in the response to the recent snow storm:

December 28, 2010

Dear Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

I am writing to express concern and seek answers about the City’s response to this past Sunday’s snow storm. My office has become aware of concerns voiced by New Yorkers who are unable to leave their homes or immediate vicinity as a result of unplowed roads and public walkways. It has become evident that the outer boroughs have been disproportionately affected by the lack of plowing after Sunday’s snow storm.

The storm on Sunday was severe and although the City is working feverishly now to clear the streets, I believe that the City could have taken a more precautionary approach. I am concerned that the City did not take the necessary steps to help minimize the disruptions to transportation, sanitation, and emergency services. 


Additionally, I think the City should have made more decisive steps to keep drivers off the roadways and prevent so many abandoned vehicles from obstructing the City’s snowplows. With more winter storms ahead, it is imperative that we learn from our experiences to better prepare ourselves for future storms and natural disasters.

To better understand how the City handled this Sunday’s severe storm, I request the following data from the Office of Emergency Management (“Office”), the Department of Sanitation (“Department”), and call information from 311 and 911. This data will be a key tool in evaluating what steps need to be taken in the future during severe storms.

Office of Emergency Management

The Office of Emergency Management is responsible for helping New York City plan and prepares for emergencies, as well as coordinates for a timely response and recovery. I have several questions regarding the Office’s preparation for Sunday’s storm.

· It is my understanding that the Office decided against declaring Sunday’s storm a Snow Emergency, which would have moved cars from the arterial roadways essential to moving emergency vehicles. Please explain the rationale behind this decision.
· What is the protocol for declaring a Snow Emergency? What factors are considered? Who declares a Snow Emergency and how is this declaration reviewed?
· Besides implementing a Snow Emergency plan, what other tools are at the City’s disposal to quickly remove cars off the street so that they do not block emergency services or snow plows?
· What alerts did the Office have in place for motorists prior to Sunday’s storm that would have informed them about the storm and alternate parking options?
· Based on news reports, snow banks caused serious obstacles for emergency services vehicles trying to access individuals in need of medical attention. What measures were taken to pair sanitation workers who were operating plows with emergency service vehicles?

Department of Sanitation

I have several questions about the process the Department of Sanitation undertook to ensure that streets were being plowed in a timely fashion.

· Understanding that the Department is experiencing a hiring freeze, please provide details about the Department’s current staffing levels as they relate to snow clearance. What positions at the Department are responsible for clearing the streets during snow storms? If these staffing levels are divided by borough, please provide my office with the information by borough.
· Please provide a description of how the Department responded to specific requests for assistance from 311 and my office between Sunday, December 26^th and Tuesday, December 28^th. On what timeframe were those forwarded complaints addressed? Through what process were those complaints incorporated into the Department’s snow clearance activities?
· Please provide my office with detailed timelines regarding the plowing of primary, secondary and tertiary streets for each borough following the storm.
· Please provide my office with a detailed budget that shows how snow removal resources are allocated by borough.
· Based on a Wall Street Journal article, Jason Post, a spokesperson for the Mayor stated that administrative workers were being employed for field work. How were these individuals trained and prepared for snow clearance?

311

My office has received hundreds of calls from constituents regarding the snow storm and many of them are being placed on hold for long periods of time when they contact 311. To that end, I have several questions about the handling of calls regarding the storm.

· Please provide my office with a detailed call summary related to the storm from Sunday, December 26, 2010 until Sunday, January 2, 2010.
· What was the average wait time for calls during the snow storm and what is the wait time normally?
· Please provide my office with details on how 311 queued snow storm calls and made referrals to other agencies.
· Did 311 issue complaint numbers to each individual caller?
· Please provide information about 311’s backlog of calls regarding the storm.

911

From my understanding there is a review taking place regarding the processing of 911 calls. Please provide my office with the scope of this review and the methodology being used.

Thank you and I look forward to your timely response. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Bill de Blasio

Public Advocate for the City of New York

CC: Joseph F. Bruno, Commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management; Raymond Kelly,Commissioner of the New York City Police Department; John J. Doherty, Commissioner of Department of Sanitation New York City; Stephen Goldsmith, Deputy Mayor for Operations; Elizabeth Weinstein, Director for the Mayor’s Office of Operations.

Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and His Flaky Ideas Doom New York During Storm by Juan Gonzalez - NY Daily News

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Stephen Goldsmith bungled New York's preparedness for Sunday's winter storm. Xanthos/News

City Hall's bungled response to the Blizzard of 2010 started at the top.

Any probe of what went wrong must first examine the key decisions Mayor Bloomberg and his new deputy mayor for operations, Stephen Goldsmith, made in the weeks and hours leading up to Sunday.

After all, our police, sanitation, fire and EMS workers have always performed admirably in previous storms.

And no one supervises snow removal better than Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, a guy who actually rose through the ranks of his department.

So what was different this time?

Poor management, plain and simple.

It starts with Goldsmith, the hotshot former mayor of Indianapolis who made a name for himself as a "reinventor" of government. His big secret was laying off gobs of city workers and privatizing every service he could.

Bloomberg named Goldsmith his top deputy in April and has handed him enormous power to do the same thing here.

The blizzard was the new deputy's first big test - and he flunked.

To begin with, Goldsmith and Bloomberg refused to declare a snow emergency, even after they learned a blizzard was on the way.

"I started getting text messages from ambulance drivers at 3 a.m. Monday that they were stuck in the snow," said Pat Bahnken, president of the EMS workers' union. "I urged the Fire Department to declare a snow emergency, but they were told City Hall said 'no.'"

Back in 1996, a similar monster storm struck our city. It dumped 20 inches, closed airports, and left drifts 20-feet high.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani not only declared a snow emergency and ordered all nonessential vehicles off the road, he took 3,300 city buses out of service so they wouldn't block sanitation trucks and rescue vehicles.

Giuliani also asked then-Gov. George Pataki for help. Pataki dispatched 400 national guardsmen with 100 Humvees that were used as ambulances to transport medical supplies and health workers.

If Bloomberg and Goldsmith had done the same, we wouldn't have had hundreds of stuck buses and ambulances blocking main arteries.

"Under Rudy, every snowstorm was considered a big deal," one former Giuliani official said. "All commissioners and top staffers were expected to be at the command center and we all worked hard together."

This time, Goldsmith was out of town and didn't even show up at the command center until Monday. A City Hall spokesman wouldn't say where he was.

"He was in regular email and phone contact with Doherty and "[Office of Emergency Management Director Joseph] Bruno," mayoral spokesman Jason Post said.

The Sanitation Department has been Goldsmith's special target since he arrived in town.

"He micromanages everything in this department," is how one official put it.

Goldsmith is determined to cut the number of sanitation workers and use more private contractors for snow removal - something Doherty has resisted.

The staff reductions and the deputy mayor's scheduled demotion of 100 sanitation supervisors in January - putting them back in sanitation trucks and cutting the pay of many of them - has led to growing tension and made Goldsmith a hated figure in the department.

Those supervisors normally check that city trucks and private contractors do their routes properly. In some cases, some angry workers appear to have slowed down their work during the storm.

City Hall appeared yesterday to recognize the problem and may be backtracking on some of those demotions, several sources say.

So if you want to know what went wrong, start at the top.

One Blizzard, Two Markedly Different Approaches in NJ and NYC By Bob Hennelly - WNYC

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On Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg was careful not to overpromise. With dozens of ambulances and hundreds of buses still stranded, he was trying to manage expectations. Outer borough council members said constituents had not yet seen a snow plow.

"I don’t know that you ever get everything plowed because there always are streets, there are streets not even on the map... but I think you can expect another 24 hours before we’ll get to everyone, and even then I'm not so sure," he said.

That was quite a contrast to the mayor's stoic detachment a day earlier, when he didn't seem to fully grasp just how dysfunctional things had become for most New Yorkers. "The world has not come to an end," he said. "The city is going fine. Broadway shows were full last night. There are lots of tourists here enjoying themselves."

Mayor Bloomberg kept the city open for business on Monday and held the NYPD's graduation ceremony for more than 1,100 police cadets and their families at Madison Square Garden.

Meanwhile, west of the Hudson in New Jersey, Acting New Jersey Governor Steve Sweeney had declared a statewide snow emergency the night before (New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was out of state.) That declaration marshalled all of the state's resources including the National Guard. He bought himself time by granting the state workforce a two-hour delayed opening.

"The State of Emergency gives us the ability to get a lot of vehicles off the road where we can get our roads cleaned up as fast as possible and this evening there are going to be some really high winds so we are going to have blizzard conditions this evening so it is best for people to get off the road," Sweeney told WNYC Sunday night.

The next moning, Sweeney closed state government except for the state's essential emergency personnel.

That Bloomberg decision to keep the city's massive workforce on the hook for the day really irked Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee. He said the Bloomberg administration made a critical error when it decided not to close city agencies.

"It was absolutely a mistake," says Vallone. "There were people stranded on trains, people stranded on roads, people falling on the pavement. Nobody but essential personnel should have been coming in."

Vallone said he closed his office Monday, but he said his Facebook page blew up with hundreds of complaints from constituents about the lack of snow plows.

"There was just a storm last December which was almost as bad as this one and we saw snow plows all day and all night," Valone said on Tuesday. "For the last 24 hours, we have seen no snowplows. We are finally beginning to see snow plows on the side streets of Queens. But we have been left on our own and it has been a very dangerous situation."

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says she is convening emergency oversight hearings because this response was such a degradation from similar snow emergencies. Quinn said she is not clear why the Bloomberg administration did not declare a snow emergency as was done in New Jersey. She says Mayor Bloomberg's response that it would have caused more chaos left her perplexed.

“Well, that makes me ask, why do we have snow emergency rules that don’t work in a snow emergency!" Quinn said. "Maybe we in fact need to look at the way we define snow emergency and the rules we put in place around snow emergencies and bring them up to date.”

Earlier in the week the city's Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Bruno said only the governor could make such a declaration. But Dennis Michalski, with the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, says any local mayor has that power.

Firefighters' union president Steve Cassidy says many companies could not reach fires due to snowed-in streets or because they were covering for ambulances stuck in the snow. "Response times were affected dramatically and at one point, half of the engine companies were unavailable to respond to fires or other emergencies because they were assigned to medical emergencies."

On Monday, the city's 311 phone line had 250,000 calls. One major problem was that out of the close to 50,000 911 calls the NYPD received, only 10,000, or one in five, were actual emergencies.

Floating in the background is the question of whether cutting of 400 Sanitation Department slots was part of what slowed the response. Back in October, Stephen Goldsmith, the new Deputy Mayor for Operations, who replaced experienced city hand Ed Skyker, may have gotten off on the wrong foot with the Department of Sanitation middle management when he hailed his plan to demote 100 sanitation supervisors.

The Daily News Adam Lisberg and Lisa Colangelo reported in October that as a result, the busted supervisors got their pay cut $5,000 and the remaining supervisors got almost double the workload.

STATEMENT BY PUBLIC ADVOCATE DE BLASIO ON CITY?S WINTER STORM RESPONSE

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is seeking answers from City agencies regarding their preparedness for yesterday’s blizzard, and calling on New Yorkers to report ongoing problems with obstructed streets. With more winter storms ahead, the Public Advocate hopes to improve the City's storm response by utilizing detailed feedback from neighborhoods across the city, and comparing details from the current clean-up effort to those of past storms.

“Yesterday’s storm was especially severe, and I am increasingly concerned the City did not take every necessary step to minimize the disruption," said Public Advocate de Blasio. "More decisive steps should have been taken to keep drivers off the roadways and prevent so many abandoned vehicles from obstructing the City’s snowplows. We need to determine if inadequate preparation played any role in grinding New York City to a halt. By learning from the difficulties experienced over the last 48 hours, and paying heed to the neighborhoods most severely affected, we can ensure we are ready for the next big storm.”

Public Advocate de Blasio is sending letters of inquiry to the Office of Emergency Management regarding the decision against declaring a Snow Emergency during the storm, and to the NYC Department of Sanitation regarding staffing levels.

The Office of the Public Advocate is also compiling reports of streets that remain obstructed by snow or abandoned vehicles. After reporting such conditions to 311, New Yorkers should call the Public Advocate Hotline at 212-669-7250 or file a report online at www.advocate.nyc.gov.

Statement from Assemblyman Miller Regarding City Response to Blizzard...

"During the early hours of the storm, the city did a phenomenal job of keeping the roads safe. Unfortunately, at some point during the night, they were overloaded. Our sanitation workers have been working hard, some of them pulling double shifts and putting in extra hours, but its time that the residents of Queens get the help they need.  It has been over 48 hours since the storm passed and our lives are still being disrupted by the snow. This is just another example of how Queens and the residents of my district constantly get the short end of the stick. This is a disgrace"

Senator Addabbo: Statement on Blizzard Cleanup...

Many Residential Side Streets in Senator's District Remain Unplowed Into December 28


“I have utmost respect for the Department of Sanitation workers, and I thank them and others for their efforts following the blizzard. I am disappointed and bothered by the lack of priority given to the residential side streets throughout our communities many hours after the snowfall. These streets remained unplowed and unmanageable for emergency vehicles, people on their way to work and those who had doctor appointments. Given the amount of notice that this sizable snow storm was coming and the hours that passed after the storm, having the streets not plowed was totally unacceptable.”   

“Over the past days, I have been going throughout the district and reporting to the Sanitation Department key areas that are in need of plowing. I have prioritized those blocks that have residents with medical conditions or seniors. As I continue to survey the district, if I can be of any assistance to a specific area, please call either district office with detailed information.”

Outer-Borough Council Members Outraged At City's Handling of Blizzard Clean-up

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Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer, David G. Greenfield and Stephen Levin are outraged at the City's gross mishandling of its blizzard response and are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to accept full responsibility for the consequences, including endangering the lives of countless New Yorkers waiting for emergency response vehicles hindered by deplorable street conditions.



Councilman Van Bramer, who represents Woodside, Sunnyside, Long Island City, Astoria, and Maspeth in Queens, echoed Councilman Greenfield's sentiment. "I have lived my entire life in Queens, seen many storms, but have never seen so long a period go by where we just haven't seen snow plows clearing the streets," noted Van Bramer. "More than 24 hours after the first snowflakes fell, there are still major roadways in my district that have yet to be plowed. Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City is just one example of a poor response to this storm by this administration. The hardworking people of my district and the entire City deserve better service."



Councilman Greenfield, who represents the Bensonhurst, Boro Park and Midwood sections of Brooklyn, was shocked at the conditions as he walked the streets of his district this afternoon. "I've lived here my entire life," said Greenfield, "and I've never seen the streets this way after a major snowstorm. Here in the outer-boroughs we are used to being the step-children of Manhattan and waiting for available plows, but there are major streets in my district that haven't see a plow at all. Quite frankly, I've never seen such a wholesale failure of government to provide basic services."



The Council Members attribute the extremely hazardous conditions to Mayor Bloomberg's personnel reductions at the Department of Sanitation, which left the Department short 400 sanitation workers.

"I am outraged at the lack of response in the neighborhoods which I represent," said Councilman Levin, who represents Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. "It is unacceptable that, a full day after the storm, major avenues throughout my district have yet to see a snow plow. I commend all the DSNY, FDNY, and NYPD workers giving their all out in the snow today, and we are all grateful for their work, but they have not been given enough resources. Clearly, City Hall and the leadership at the Sanitation Department were entirely unprepared for a storm of this magnitude, and we are all paying the price for that now."



All three Council Members expressed their gratitude to the outstanding men and women of the Sanitation Department, NYPD, NYFD and OEM, noting how they selflessly left their own families to serve their communities in extremely hazardous conditions. Unfortunately, their superiors were clearly unprepared for this storm, and left all New Yorkers in a ditch.

Snowed In? Not on Hizzoner's Block, But Ozone Park is Still Completely Snowed In - NYTimes.com

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It's nice to be King Bloomberg...One has to wonder if Emperor Mike's elimination of 5200 Sanitation workers last year could be the cause of this debacle in the outer boroughs...

Mayor Bloomberg's block @ 4:19pm - Photo by Corey Kilgannon

At least one city street is looking positively spiffy. That's East 79th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues you're looking at, grayish asphalt positively gleaming (metaphorically speaking) in the afternoon shade.

The block (East 79th) happens to be the home of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg - those are the bay windows of his doublewide townhouse on the left.


Now for comparison, here's the two block walk from my house on 103rd Avenue and 94th Street to Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens at about 6pm (an hour and a half after the photo above)...94th Street is totally impassable, as are most of the north-south streets in the neighborhood...Please note, this area is one of the busiest traffic-wise and one of the most major intersections in the entire borough of Queens...The thoroughfares of Liberty Avenue, Rockaway Blvd, Crossbay Blvd, Woodhaven Blvd and 94th Street all intersect at this location...

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Councilman Ulrich and DSNY Commissioner Doherty Unveil New Street Corner Litter Baskets in Ozone Park

Queens West Superintendent Hans Banderson, Borough Chief Douglas Marsiglia, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Community Affairs  Maria Termini, DSNY Commissioner John J. Doherty and Council Member Eric Ulrich..

Council Member Eric A. Ulrich (R-Queens) was joined on Tuesday by Sanitation Department Commissioner John J. Doherty at 93rd Street and 101st Avenue in Ozone Park to announce that 35 street corner litter baskets will be installed as part of an effort to keep one of the area’s busiest commercial strips attractive to residents, merchants and shoppers.

Ulrich said, “We are doing everything we can to keep Ozone Park clean. These new trash cans will raise the profile of one of the district’s main shopping strips, discourage illegal dumping on street corners, and improve the quality of life for residents and business owners alike.”

Doherty said, “By funding these initiatives, Council Member Ulrich provides a great example of how elected officials and residents, working together with the Sanitation Department, can make a real difference in helping to keep their communities clean.”

Council Member Ulrich allocated $18,270 in this fiscal year’s budget for the new litter baskets. Installation of the receptacles, which are designed with a narrow opening on top to discourage illegal dumping of trash on street corners, represents the latest aspect of Ulrich’s quality of life agenda.

Forest Hills A Haven For Raccoons? by Rob MacKay- Forest Hills, NY Patch

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J.R. Nocerino knew things were getting out of control when he saw a family of five raccoons walking through Forest Hills in broad daylight. Although the species is nocturnal and at home in the wild, these critters were casually prancing down 68th Drive, showing no fear of humans or automobiles.

"They're getting bolder and bolder," he said. "One buddy of mine found a raccoon swimming in his pool."

A rarity 10 years ago, raccoons are popping up all over Forest Hills these days, it would seem. Recently, they have been sighted near the LIRR tracks, on the Forest Hills Little League baseball fields, on residential fences, in trees, and of course, in garbage cans.

"We're getting inundated," Nocerino said.

Though cute and cuddly-looking, raccoons can be vicious, especially if a mother thinks her brood might be in danger. They also, more seriously, present a rabies risk, although city data reveals that no rabid raccoons have been found in Queens this year. (Over 100 sick creatures have been trapped in Manhattan's Central Park, Brooklyn and the Bronx.)

On a citywide basis, raccoon-related 311 calls have increased by about 300 this year — as compared to the same time span last year — to roughly 2,400.

"They're just scaring the heck out of people," said Community Board 6 District Manager Frank Gulluscio.

Locals point their fingers at the year-old Metropolitan Avenue Campus, which houses a high school and a middle school, as one reason for the recent spike. Some residents have claimed that the construction noise in the area made the critters move to quieter, more residential parts of town, especially since the school replaced the densely-wooded area where the nests would have been.

Residents also blamed city policy, noting that the NYC Department of Health will only remove a raccoon when it is sick or rabies is suspected.

City Council member Elizabeth Crowley, whose district includes Glendale, Middle Village and Woodhaven, has decided that enough is enough. She has introduced a bill that would force the NYC Health Department to remove raccoons from public and private property whenever a citizen makes a formal request.

If enacted into law, the legislation would require the health department to create a humane way to dispose of any unwanted raccoons, likely by capturing them and releasing them in areas outside the city.

In the meantime, Gulluscio encouraged locals to seal up their trash cans.

Lifelong Glendale resident Frank Kotnik Jr., who has patrolled Mid-Queens for decades as part of the 104th Precint Civilian Observation Patrol, said that a raccoon invasion might be the sign of better times. "The City of New York is becoming a friendlier place for animals," he said. "The air is cleaner ... and we have good restaurants."

Kotnik also reported that raccoons have run amok in Glendale for at least 15 years.

If the trend of wildlife migrating from his neighborhood to Forest Hills continues, he warned residents of a possible impending dilemna.

"I'm starting to see more possums near my house, " he said.

The Sanitation Department Ranks the Worst New York City Neighborhoods for Dog Poo Violations - NYPOST.com

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"Watch your step in Washington Heights.


The upper Manhattan neighborhood ranked first -- or worst -- in the borough for dog droppings, according to a database of pooper-scooper violations provided to The Post by the Sanitation Department.


Riverside Drive, Amsterdam Avenue and 179th and 160th streets were the worst mutt minefields in the area, Sanitation officials said.


'The city just stinks,' said Megan Winner, 30, a Washington Heights resident who tries to walk to her job at New York-Presbyterian Hospital without ruining her shoes.


'I can't enjoy my walk. It's full of landmines of dog s- -t,' she said."

"I love dogs, but when I see crap on the sidewalk, I don't see the dog. I see the owner."

"It's bad. I have to clean my shoes really regularly to scrape the poop off," said neighborhood resident Rob Thomas.

Click here to see how NYC's 5 Boroughs Stack Up In  Terms of Dog-Waste Violations

Part of the problem could be that there's no place to put the poop, said Michael Messina, 34, who walks his 5-year-old black Lab, Lexington, in the neighborhood.

"There are not as many garbage cans around here compared to other neighborhoods," he said.

"You have to go through an extra effort to pick up the mess."

Glendale, Queens, was awarded the dubious distinction of having the most piles of dog doo-doo in the entire city -- the scene of 41 violations in the fiscal year that ended in July.

The small, family-friendly neighborhood had almost as many violations as all of Manhattan and accounted for nearly half of all the tickets issued in Queens.

The highest concentration of complaints were on Cooper, Myrtle and Metropolitan avenues, all within barking distance of each other.

The prize for the crappiest borough went to The Bronx, where 202 violations were issued last year.

But that was down 44 percent from 2008.

Rude dog walkers were slapped with 134 summonses in Brooklyn, and 18 were ticketed in Staten Island.

Overall, the city is less smelly, with 510 poop penalties in the last fiscal year, compared to 580 in 2009 and 909 two years ago.

Officials say pooch owners are more polite because the city increased fines to $250 from $100 in late 2008.

Pooper-scooper scofflaws must be caught in the act by Sanitation enforcement agents, who are often directed to certain areas based on 311-hotline complaints.

Additional reporting by Lucy Kinder