Second MTA Meeting:
Thanks to Elected Officials representatives Council Member Chin’s Gigi Li, Borough President Brewer’s Brian Lewis, and Nydia Velázquez’ office and Susan Stetzer from CB3.
(Prior to this meeting there was a walk-through with DOH, MTA, the MTA contractor, Parks, residents, CB3 and Coalition)
Safety:
Dangerous corridor on SDR Park East Side btw Stanton/Rivington where tunnel was created – neighbors/Coalition is requesting Parks/Police/Elected reps to close off the tunnel as a preventative measure.
Dangerous tunnel on residential side of Forsyth Delancey/Rivington. Increased patrols by police. The contractor is working out access to electrical source for lighting. Their solar lights were stolen.
Cameras temporarily on buildings with signage?
Rats:
MTA is apparently “out of compliance” with NYC construction rules. Rat abatement required. Two weeks to complete the contract but the Park is already experiencing uptick in rat nesting sites in nearby garden areas. 3 more dead rats found in garden.
Susan Stetzer and Parks will look into bringing back in the Department of Health as emergency help in the Park while the MTA gets its rat abatement up to speed.
RATS:
The Department of Health (DOH) did a walk-through of the park on the uptick of rats and gave Parks and the Coalition their expert advice.
All SDR Plot areas:
- Check plots for rat burrows.
- Remove clumps of sticks.
- Check plots for rat burrows.
- Either email or call in or mark rat burrows you see with red flag for Parks exterminators (see contact below) and DOH inspector will be checking in.
- NO food left exposed.
- Rats love to hide and we’ll have to ensure they don’t have a place to do that.
- Find out why the rat abatement was blocked south of Grand Street.
- We will ALL need to be dedicated, willing rat inspectors
Parks Department is now taken on rat –abatement. DOH will serve as monitor.
The MTA site is two weeks away from activating their contract for their site rat abatement.
If you see rat burrows – contact: Mark Vaccaro Mark.Vaccaro@parks.nyc.gov, Parks supervisor, with the location and, if possible, a marker.
Houston Street Area – Illegal garbage dumping on Stanton – law enforcement needed. Increase trash pick –up for the entire area. Remove luggage. Talk to food distributors again to require them to remove trash in the entire area when they are finished distributing.
Someone defecated in the new BirdLink Sculpture. Sorry to hear this.
M’Finda Garden:
- Construction on both sides of the MKGarden –rats are looking for new homes. The adjacent MTA digging site is going to make things worse.
- Rat burrows in many of the deep boxes around the bocce court – dismantle them.
- Buy shallower, free standing boxes (as on the patio). Parks said they will come in to deal with the rat nests in the boxes on Monday August 5th.
- Keep checking shed in children’s area.
- Chicken coop area: ANY food should be enclosed in sealed metal containers.
- No food left exposed in the Garden (Shared BRC patio too)!! Including CSA food.
- Watch the compost pile for rat burrows.
- If there is a dense plot – Gardeners need to check for rat burrows. If we don’t wish to do that? Remove ground cover or make a path through your plot that the rat abatement team can get inside it. Thin plots with tall dense plantings.
- In the areas along the sides of the garden it is particularly important to remove excess vegetation and wood chip the area. Even making clumps of foliage helps because apparently rats move in a linear way and it exposes them (which they don’t like) if they have to run from clump to clump.
- Schedule another clean up of the entire garden.
Delancey South: remove low wall where people sit and toss garbage into plots or garbage pick up 3 times a day. Remove baggage in plot areas.
Grand South: Allow rat abatement throughout the Park. Resolve any issues with refusing to allow workers in to do rat abatement.
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Mosquitos: It is still flooding Rivington Streetway inside SDR Park. CALL 311 ask to complain to the Department of Environmental Protection and the Parks Department and the Department of Health.
Parks proposing to ask DEP to clear the drain which would help, though the constant leak of an underground pipe is wasteful and going on for years now.
The mobile food truck was moved because it wasn’t meeting its census – moved to Hester area of Park. Was it not meeting its census because no one could get to the truck through the flooding?
PLEASE Call 311, get the complaint number, if you don’t get a satisfactory response? Send the complaint # to the Community Board 3 District Office. They will follow up –
sstetzer@cb3manhattan.org
212-533-6015
jshelton@cb3manhattan.org
212-533-5300 x205
