Man Named ‘Service’ Cleans Up NYC Dumping Site on His Own Initiative.
Joshua Service, a 25-year-old commuter, spent two hours cleaning a littered Brooklyn underpass near a Long Island Rail Road stop after his 311 complaints did not bring quick results.
A 25-year-old commuter named Joshua Service cleaned up a littered underpass in Brooklyn himself, according to CBS News New York. On a Monday, he spent two hours filling about 10 garbage bags beneath the Long Island Rail Road's Nostrand Avenue station, near Atlantic Avenue.
Service travels from Queens to a job in Crown Heights. He said he noticed the mess the week before, filed complaints with 311 and posted about it on social media. The Department of Sanitation answered that it would inspect within 7 days. Service said some people who saw his videos told him to stop making them and clean the area himself, so he did.
He said he learned the delay was tied to the site also being considered a homeless encampment. The report says city rules require the Department of Social Services to visit such a site seven days in a row before the area can be addressed. Service said Sanitation could not simply collect the bags because workers had to make sure the items were not a homeless person's property.
Wearing gloves, Service collected items that included women's and children's shoes, which he said suggested people had dumped garbage there. He said a passerby asked whether he worked for the Department of Transportation, and he replied that he was an independent contractor. Haile Ali, a Crown Heights resident, praised the effort and called it "something we need more of."
The Department of Homeless Services said that when it went to the site on Wednesday, it helped move one person to a shelter. City Councilmember Chi Ossé planned to honor Service on Friday at the spot he cleaned. Service said "no matter who you are, you can make a change." He added that he wants to become mayor one day, noting that his last name is Service.
At a Glance
- Joshua Service, 25, spent two hours on a Monday cleaning the underpass beneath the LIRR Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn.
- He filled about 10 garbage bags with trash, including women's and children's shoes.
- The Department of Sanitation told him in response to his 311 complaints that it would inspect within 7 days.
- City rules require the Department of Social Services to visit an encampment site seven days in a row before the area is addressed.
- Councilmember Chi Ossé planned to honor Service at the site on Friday.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.