Jackson Heights Life

There are no trash cans on these blocks because they are reidential streets. Having them will only make the side streets worse with litter as people illegally dump household garbage into them.

From nyc.gov:

The City places and maintains garbage receptacles at commercial street corners along standard collection routes.

The City accepts requests for litter baskets in new locations within commercial and mixed-use zones. You may not request a public litter basket for a residential area.

The City also accepts reports that public waste receptacles are overflowing or are being used for household or commercial purposes.

Thanks for the clarification. I understand the reservations. Manhattan is not quite like that, but I suppose it might be because it's hard to find a block there that's purely residential.

Still, I think it's lame that residential streets won't have trash cans. It would certainly help with dog poop.

The overflowing might not be a matter of uneducated residents, but of insufficient pick up crews. It's hard to compare New York now to the 80s. So the fact that there was trash overflowing in the 80s does not mean the same would happen now. Tax here is high. The city should be able to add trash cans and pick up trucks. This is 2015.

While it would seem that trash cans make a difference, the litter all over 82nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue proves that not to be the case.  It was the same way on Ditmars and 31 Street.  I don't know why, but apparently there are a lot of slobs out there whose parents never taught them how to dispose of trash properly.  Police could make a killing enforcing both the litter laws and the dog poop laws if they wanted to.

Still, I think it's lame that residential streets won't have trash cans. It would certainly help with dog poop.

I doubt it would help that much. People who walk along residential streets are far more likely to be residents or visiting residents than folks walking along a commercial  street. There's a higher incentive to not litter when you actually live in the neighborhood or on the block you're walking on. People who don't pick up after their dog probably aren't going to be dissuaded from being irresponsible dog owners by the addition of garbage cans.

My coop maintains a garbage can on the street, and there's still dog crap on the sidewalk sometimes. (I am not certain, but I have always assumed it's because it's dog friendly and the maintenance staff would rather deal with a bag with lots of dog poop in it outside rather than dealing with dog poop in the trash compactor. And now that I think about it, I don't want to smell dog poop every time I got to the basement to do laundry. Gross.)