Here's Where NYC Locals Complain Most About Litter

NEW YORK CITY — Forget the "summer of New York City" — thousands of city dwellers spent the coronavirus pandemic calling for a spring cleaning.

Litter-related complaints to 311 nearly doubled 2020 compared to the year before, according to data.

As New Yorkers emerged from their quarantine cocoons over last summer, they started noticing more and more trash across the city. Cleanliness, or the city's lack of it, became such a messy topic that a major plank of Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts to jumpstart the city's recovery is a citywide cleanup effort.

Roughly 10,000 new city workers — the City Cleanup Corps — are poised to clean up trash and perform other beautification efforts. The New Deal-inspired program is funded by federal stimulus money and carries a $234 million price tag.

"Folks will be out there eradicating graffiti, beautifying parks, helping our wonderful Open Streets and programs to be as beautiful as it can be," de Blasio said recently. "Making sure there's less litter on the streets — you name it. We have so many things that we need to do and now having a dedicated group of New Yorkers who will go out there and make the city shine."

City officials planned to hire 1,000 workers for the Corps by the end of April. The mayor's office didn't respond to a Patch request for comment on whether they reached that goal.

But whatever the program's strength it's likely workers will be at many litter hotspots.

Here's where New Yorkers made the most litter-related complaints.

Dirty parks

The vast majority of litter-related complaints during the pandemic came from the city's parks, according to 311 data.

More than 5,900 "garbage or litter" complaints piled up from parks from Jan. 1, 2020 to this week, data shows.

Brooklyn had the largest share of complaints at 1,899, followed closely by the Bronx with 1,524.

Most of the complaints are from "unspecified" parks but a closer look helps narrow down the trash hotspots.

The Bronx's 10468 ZIP Code Code — which has Devoe Park, among other facilities — had the most complaints with 260, according to data.

Its neighboring 10457 ZIP Code — near but not quite bordering the Bronx Zoo — had the second-most at 192 complaints.

Then it's Brooklyn's 11235 ZIP Code covering Brighton Beach with 131 complaints.

In fact, a cluster of five south Brooklyn ZIP Codes near or at Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay all ranked in the top five borough-wide for park litter complaints.

Those are:

• 11235 — 131 complaints
• 11214 — 97 complaints
• 11224 — 91 complaints
• 11234 — 90 complaints
• 11229 — 85 complaints

Dirty sidewalks

A single Sheepshead Bay address — 2601 Avenue U — drew the most complaints about "dirty conditions" at a sidewalk litter basket.

It had nine such complaints stretching back to June 4, 2020 and as recently as Feb. 24.

Overall, complaints about littered sidewalks were nowhere near as numerous as parks — there were 551 sidewalk-related complaints citywide.

Queens had the most of the boroughs at 142 complaints of "dirty conditions," data shows.

Five addresses had the most complaints filed either from or about:

• 2601 Avenue U — 9 complaints
• 127-01 Liberty Avenue — 4 complaints
• 167-18 Hillside Avenue — 4 complaints
• 450 City Island Avenue — 4 complaints
• 1558 Westchester Avenue — 3 complaints

Summer spike

A spring 2020 decline in litter complaints heated up considerably over the first pandemic summer, data shows.

New Yorkers made 1045 complaints about "garbage or litter" between April and June 2020 — roughly equivalent to the number during the same span in 2019.

But between July and September 2020 the complaints jumped up to 2,832. There were 1,440 during the same months in 2019, according to data.

City officials hope to reach the 10,000-mark on City Cleanup Corps hires by July — potentially coinciding with another trash spike.

De Blasio said officials plan to also support community groups doing their own cleanups.

"A lot of people are just pitching in and there's tremendous energy and recognition that, you know, cleaning up as part of our renewal and part of our moving forward," he said during a recent news briefing. "So, definitely community groups that want to work with us, we want to connect them with the Cleanup Corps, connect them with Sanitation Department."