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Eastern Parkway/Union Temple Rat-Infested Eyesore — Brooklynian

Eastern Parkway/Union Temple Rat-Infested Eyesore

marknyc
marknyc
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
Does anyone know when the Union Temple building will remove the "trash bin" eyesore which has blocked the sidewalk since the RM building was completed?

First off, the lids on the trash bins are never closed. As a result, it's been rat-infested since the beginning.

Aside from the multiple rodents (we counted three the other night), it literally stinks.

One of my neighbors attends Union Temple and told me several months ago that the fenced-in space was a temporary solution.

That made sense: why would the RM people want something this ugly several feet away from their building? Surely, the original plans positioned the building trash bins somewhere else.

But it's close to the end of July and it's still there.

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Comments

  • bkchickie
    bkchickie
    Have you called Union Temple about this to ask?
  • jmd
    jmd

    Subject: Rats on Eastern Parkway

    FYI I contacted the Temple.

    It is a problem that Procida ( the developer of the glass building) is responsible for and supposedly has exterminators regularly coming to the building.

    All complaints should be going to their offices in the Glass building
  • jack krohn
    jack krohn
    Call 311 and specifically mention that you've seen rats (not mice, RATS). My wife did this when we experienced the same problem with a family renovating a nearby building. Sanitations came, cleaned the mess up, and then imposed a fine, which must have been nominal, as the trash soon piled up again. My wife called 311 a second time, with the same speedy results, only the second fine must have been substantial because thereafter, the developer routinely sent a guy over to clean the place up. In the end, hitting them in the pocketbook was the only thing that made a difference.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31

    Subject: Re: Rats on Eastern Parkway

    jmd wrote: FYI I contacted the Temple.

    It is a problem that Procida ( the developer of the glass building) is responsible for and supposedly has exterminators regularly coming to the building.

    All complaints should be going to their offices in the Glass building
    correct. The rats live in the soil of the plants behind then dumpster.

    My dog chases them when they come out at night, but I do not let him dig up the garden.
  • arches
    arches

    Subject: Re: Rats on Eastern Parkway

    whynot_31 wrote: correct. The rats live in the soil of the plants behind then dumpster.
    Are you sure it isn't performance art?
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31

    Subject: Re: Rats on Eastern Parkway

    arches wrote: [quote=whynot_31]correct. The rats live in the soil of the plants behind then dumpster.
    Are you sure it isn't performance art?

    It could be. I didn't realize that's what the people waiting to be killed (hands behind their backs) were either ...I didn't do very well in Art Appreciation.

    ...back on topic, last night Dude and I looked around:

    The rats seem to have burrowed holes into the garden dirt, and live under the sidewalk.

    Several holes were found around the area before he decided to moved on. Also, it seems an architect type person has claimed one of the ground floor spaces. ...there are blue prints and file cabinets visible thru the big glass walls.
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    Perhaps it is an architect of doom.

    DOOM I SAY!!!
  • arches
    arches
    Proper/traditional rat catching would require you to buy a ferret to form a partnership with Dude. The ferret would be placed in the rat holes and chase the rats to the surface, where Dude would be waiting open-mouthed to catch them and break their necks (technically, dude would also be some sort of terrier...but we'll let that slide, b/c i like him). Danny Hellman would be appalled.

    Have you considered that the architect may be helping the rats design their new underground home?
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    All good points.

    ...and I am pleased to announce that The Great Upstate Mole Story will now be retold. (Longtime readers may have heard this story in the past, my apologies).

    So, Dude and I were upstate and he was digging around the mother in laws yard. Being that he had only been successful at catching and eating frogs before this date, I paid no attention.

    Fast forward one hour.

    Dude is looking woozy, like he does after drinking really gross puddle water. As expected, he vomits.

    To my delight, he vomits up a slime covered, intact, but very dead mole. This causes him to run around in circles, perhaps because he now feels better ....perhaps because he is delighted to see the mole he skillfully hunted again.

    Unfortunately, I did not get a picture.

    Back on topic: I believe the Meier building is not responsible for the rats, and agree that Union Temple's thriving catering business (combined with "temporary" (3 yr +) dumpster is likely to blame.

    Perhaps the new architect type person will have better luck filling the place... lot's of room left after almost 6 years.
  • arches
    arches
    whynot_31 wrote: Back on topic: I believe the Meier building is not responsible for the rats, and agree that Union Temple's thriving catering business (combined with "temporary" (3 yr +) dumpster is likely to blame.
    Agreed, the feeder of the rats should always take the most blame...although providing harborage isn't so good either. Any tunnels should be broken up and refilled to make the area less attractive to rats.

    A few "Caution: Rat Infestation" signs affixed to both sides of the trash cage might get some attention.
  • ste3021878
    ste3021878
    For the record, I have called Union Temple on numerous occasions. I was referred to the building's management company and asssured that the Eastern Parkway "eyesore" was just a temporay solution. One of my calls was
    even directed to the One-On-One rehab facility and they were eager to get rid of the rats. Apparently, clients have noticed the rodents and weren't happy at all. I have also called the Richard Meier building and they are very frustrated by the slow progress.

    Nothing will change until Union Temple builds a trash receptacle site which is both hygienic and stops the rat population in its tracks. Only then will this Eastern Parkway sidewalk - travelled by dozens of families and swim program enthusiats - become safe for children and families.

    Perhaps it's time to invite the Department of Sanitation (and Council Person James) to intervene and solve this issue.
  • doglover
    doglover
    The whole neighborhood is infested, There are many rats all around the garbage cans on Washington Ave. walking south to St. Johns Place every night. My neighbor just set up a compost bin (obviously badly) and now there are rats running around his yard, even in the late afternoon. I was in one of the community gardens this week and I saw a rat there at 3 in the afternoon. (Attraction to the compost heaps there??) I saw a rat on Sterling Place between Washington and Underhill around 10 o'clock one night last month. I just walked on Lincoln Place and they had a rat trap near every basement window of the apartment buildings I looked at. I have seen rats on both sides of the bank on Washington late at night a few months ago. Etc., etc.

    I opened up the basement hatch in the front of my brownstone in the spring and forgot to close it one night and one got into my basement. (I don't what happened to the chicken wire I always had there to prevent rats from coming in.) It's been many weeks now and he is not eating the 20+ packets of poison I threw all around the basement for them. He must be the second generation, because one died last month.

    There really has to be a systemic, neighborhood-wide action to get rid of them. Everyone has to be told to close their garbage cans tightly. We need a really strong campaign of educating people what to do and what not to do. The city has raised fines to ridiculous levels for all kinds of things, but maybe the open garbage fine is not strong enough. For years and years, certain buildings on Washington Avenue between St. Johns and Sterling are have had messy, open garbage cans with the garbage strewn all over the street. I don't know how and why they have been able to get away with being so messy on a commercial block. As an environmentalist, I personally don't like to use plastic garbage bags and so I rarely put out my garbage cans late at night. I always make sure to rise early and run down to put out my garbage cans on the street, as soon as I hear the garbage trucks coming onto my block. I don't expect other people to do this, but it obviously hasn't helped me, because I got rat in my basement, even though I am extremely careful with all refuse.

    The fact is that the whole city is badly infested.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    this site now has been covered on all four sides in blue tarp? (I do not know the thinking or effectiveness behind said tarp)

    Rat traps are now visible.
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
  • ste3021878
    ste3021878
    OK - it's been more than a month since I read the original post about the Union Temple's trash bin "eyesore." What the heck is going on?

    Sure, the blue tarps suggest the Temple building is trying to make things look a little better. And, I suppose, the rat traps signify some awareness that the rodents are a genuine health hazard.

    That aside, we walked past the tarp-curtained trash bin a few hours earlier this evening. True to form, a very large rat ran across the sidewalk right in front of us and scurried into the trash bin.

    I understand that rats are sometimes part of the urban landscape. But I cannot fathom why the Union Temple building hasn't resolved this problem. An ugly trash bin positioned in the middle of a frequently traveled sidewalk is completely unacceptable. When trash is freely available, an infestation of rats is inevitable.

    When the Union Temple building sold the corner lot for the RM building, some of my neighbors were disheartened. They hated the design of the new building and complained that it didn't fit into the neighborhood. Some even felt betrayed by the Union Temple.

    Love it or hate it, the RM building is here to stay.

    But, even covered in a blue tarp, the trash bin suggests that Union Temple is sadly out of touch.

    Simply put, they are bad neighbors.
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