It snowed again and garbage removal has been suspended again. That means my street; Broadway in Brooklyn (as opposed to Broadway in Manhattan or worse, Broadway in Queens) between Thornton Street and Flushing Avenue will be extra dirty for a while. It got really filthy after the first big storm, what with Christmas trees all over the place and recycle trash and just plain trash all over that the sanitation workers just couldn’t see, because they were so busy plowing out the Upper East Side to get the new mayor’s ass out of the sling. I’ll bet Park Slope wasn’t as dirty.

            Mr. de Blasio talks about a tale of two cities, and he is right. During the Bloomberg administration the streets in Manhattan (and Park Slope) were relatively cleaner than my strip of Broadway on any given day. People in the projects (and we do have a lot of projects in the area) don’t vote. And tourists don’t frequent this part of Billyburg. Unless of course they are looking to buy drugs.

            My house, the one with the graffiti on it.

            Years ago I lived on the Lower East Side, in the 80’s. The LES was pretty dirty back then, maybe the DSNY was too scared to go into the neighborhood for fear of getting assaulted, or the then mayor decided that drug addicts don’t vote.

            Some parts of the LES haven’t changed.

            Corner of Chrstyie and Rivington Streets.This garbage can lay there like that for a week.

            So, since it snowed yesterday I guess I shouldn’t put out the garbage for a few weeks. And it was just starting to get good, I was starting to believe in the new mayor; the recycling was actually picked up this Saturday as opposed to sitting on the sidewalk for a week or two.

            OK, I understand that it takes a lot of time and effort for the DSNY to prepare for a snowstorm and then clear the streets, but does it really take them so much time to go back to picking up garbage? Are they like Gerry Ford, they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time? I knew a guy who couldn’t walk and talk on his cell phone at the same time. Maybe he was a retired sanitation worker.

            Speaking of snow removal, I noticed the streets in Manhattan were pretty clear yesterday, but sidewalks that belonged to the city were not. Getting to the Broadway line at 72^nd Street was downright treacherous. I guess that would be the NYCT’s responsibility, the entrance to the subways, but then again it might be one of those “it’s not my job” things between city agencies. The only reason the snow in front of the entrances turned to mush was the sheer number of people walking on it. But the little park leading to the street was a slippery hard-packed mess. They could have at least salted a path to the street. I smell some lawsuits coming the city’s way.

            It looks like this is going to be a snowy winter, the past few years were relatively snow free so I guess we’re due some snow. I just hope our new mayor is true to his word and starts providing equal services to all parts of the city, not just

the parts the tourists and rich people see. It’s more than just stop and frisk- if people perceive they live in a shithole they will act like they belong in a shithole.

            What I see most in my neighborhood are angry people. Angry that they are poor, angry that they must live where they live. If the city can take care of that place a little better, it just might take away some of that anger, and perhaps they will treat their surroundings a little better in turn.