MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

As Kelly and I went over historical material for our scanning project, I found a twentysomething-year-old document from the DSNY. It mentioned that the five dirtiest neighborhoods in New York City were East Harlem, Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Prospect Heights, and the Bronx’s Grand Concourse. Since it was written over twenty years ago, I was curious how these neighborhoods might look today. For a three-page assignment, I figured I should choose a smaller scope, though, so I picked Grand Concourse from the list and went to check it out.

Grand Concourse, as it turns out, is a huge street that cuts through most if not all of the Bronx, running from the Harlem River in the south Bronx (near I-87, around 135th Street) all the way to what would be 208th Street. I decided to pick a few blocks around the Grand Concourse area and explore them on foot, and then drive a greater length down Grand Concourse itself to get some idea of the trash situation in this neighborhood. All and all, I spent about two hours just observing trash on Saturday, October 6, 2007, from 12:15-2:30 p.m. I went back with a camera for about an hour on Monday, October 9, 2007 (11:50 a.m.-12:50 p.m.) to take some pictures in the area.

The Mosholu Parkway runs though the area with two residential/commercial one-way streets called East Mosholu Parkway (North and South) running alongside the actual parkway and a large, tree-lined boulevard-style park running between the Parkway itself and the similarly-named streets. Park benches run along both sides of the park, with a few wire-basket garbage cans here and there. The blocks I observed on foot went from E. 204th Street to Grand Concourse, and from E. 206th Street to E. Mosholu Parkway South. The interior streets are largely residential, with a few deli-groceries sprinkled in and the park along E. Mosholu Parkway. Spreading out, the farther south you go and along Grand Concourse itself, there are many more businesses. Tall prewar-era brick apartment buildings characterize the neighborhood, with a few private houses and some new buildings. The neighborhood seemed better taken care of than I expected, depending on the buildings or houses. People seemed to bag their trash and put it out for collection, but there was visible litter in the park grass and along curbs. Driving along the Parkway, the litter isn’t so noticeable as to make you think “Wow! Look at that!” – but you definitely notice it as you walk by.

While it seemed like most people made an effort to put their litter in cans, there were a few patterns I noticed. Throughout the neighborhood but particularly along the park, I noticed a lot of food-related garbage. Beverage bottles, cans and cups were pretty common in the curbs and near park benches. There was a diaper along one of the streets. I found a lot of napkins, plastic grocery bags, fast-food receipts and bags, cigarette cartons and butts, and clear plastic cigar wrappers. I noticed one filled black garbage bag in the park when I came back on Monday; it seemed like someone was making an effort to pick up the litter, but a lot of the smaller things must be hard to see in the leaves and grass (clear plastic wrappers, straw papers, cigarette butts . . .). I did notice that there wasn’t much actual food waste, apart from a few half-filled beverage containers. The park benches seemed to collect a lot of the food-related garbage; people probably come to the park and eat, and it’s easy to leave the wrappers behind. Where there were holes in a chain-link fence around a vacant lot, people had poked coffee cups and other litter in some of the holes. Young trees along the park were wrapped in a thick green plastic skirting, probably to keep squirrels from chewing on them; all the skirtings I observed were stuffed with trash, mostly food trash like Dunkin Donuts cups and old napkins. All of the city trash baskets were marked with stickers warning against dumping household or business trash. Most of these stickers seem to have been ignored, as the trash I observed inside seemed to contain a lot of household trash. Observing the tree skirts and baskets, I was reminded of Hawkins’ observations (Ethics of Waste) that we want to get rid of our trash as soon as possible, often resorting to surreptitious sneaking into others’ bins or inappropriate places. Floating plastic bags around the park made me think about recent moves to ban them. They really did look ugly.

I observed and photographed a lot of the litter-related signs in the neighborhood. There were several signs about cleaning up after your dog; these often went ignored, as did the no littering signs, but I stuck to photographing the regular litter. I had to wonder, though: who cleans up the dog waste?

The DSNY had posted several recycling signs at residential buildings, detailing what kinds of materials you can recycle and how to sort them. Despite the litter in curbs and around the park, people did seem to try to recycle their household trash. (Is it cynical to assume it’s because that gets more observation and regulation? I’d guess it’s easier to chuck your cigarette butts, coffee cups and Coke bottles when you’re out in the park.) I observed some bagged trash in alleyways on Saturday. When I came back to take pictures on Monday, it must have been trash day; trash was often moved to the curbs, and many more bags and piles were stacked for collection. I’d guess the sanmen have to pick up at people’s alleys and steps sometimes, since not all the trash was placed on curbs. It’s a crowded neighborhood, though; there’s probably not enough room for all the trash to be curbside. In the alleyways, trash seemed pretty well-sorted into recyclables and regular trash. The recycling seemed to be in clear blue plastic bags (I’d guess so it’s more obvious if people try to sneak non-recyclables in), except for the stacks of folded cardboard. It was refreshing to see recycling going on, but after the comments from last week’s speaker and the recycling readings we’ve had, I had to wonder what would really happen to some of these sorted materials.

Something that stood out in this neighborhood: metal trash cans. Many people either used plastic cans or just put the trash out in black bags, but I noticed several metal cans at private residences. I remembered Robert Sullivan’s comment about metal cans in his book Rats: a New York rat-control authority he spoke to indicated that the reintroduction of metal garbage cans would help reduce the number of rats in the city. Rats, this authority noted, can chew threw almost anything, including concrete, but they can’t chew through metal cans, and thus can’t get to the garbage they’re after if it’s in a closed metal can. He mentioned that this was unlikely, since they were heavy and loud, but it’s something interesting to think about.

One interesting spot I observed was the vacant lot between Lisbon Place, E. 205th Street and E. Mosholu Parkway South. It was fenced in, posted with “no trespassing” signs, and covered in rocks and gravel. Despite the signs, there was litter in corners of the lot, ranging from old tires, caution tape, a surgical mask, chain-link fencing and chains to beverage boxes, a shopping basket, plastic and glass bottles, a FedEx envelope, plastic bags, and one stray orange cat. On Saturday, a park bench near the lot had plastic bowls containing cat food and water – someone must be looking out for him. One of the more inexplicable things in this fenced-off area was a gray plastic garbage bin, lined with a fresh black bag and partially filled with household garbage and Styrofoam. I’m not sure what’s going on with this lot.

Observing the curbside trash on Monday, there were a few furniture items: a mattress, kitchen chairs, a hutch and some crib walls. I’d guess those might get “mongoed” even before the sanmen show up; on Saturday, I watched one old man wheel an ancient sound system away from a curb on a metal cart. I guess there’s more than one form of recycling in effect; I was reminded of the turn-of-the-century scrap dealers and people who made a living from the trash they found, mentioned in our Miller and waste trade readings.

I noticed a few men working on the trash on Monday, including two men along the Bronx River Parkway as I left the neighborhood, and one man picking up trash along a bike path off the Mosholu Parkway. Both times, I wanted to stop and talk to them and maybe get some pictures of them working, but the traffic is atrocious in this neighborhood and there is nowhere to park on the busy streets. This affected my modes of observation along these streets: the area I observed on foot was largely residential and pretty quiet. The farther south you go, and along busy streets and parkways, a) litter seems more prevalent, and b) I’d guess it’s harder to control. The men along the Bronx River Parkway appeared to be from a private organization, probably hired by the medical group who sponsors highway cleanup for that mile. I wasn’t sure if the guy along the bike path was from Sanitation or a private company; he seemed to be with a green truck parked a couple blocks back. I wondered if he was also doing the cleanup I observed in the park area. Also . . . who cleans up all the leaves in the park? Is this Sanitation?

It was street sweeping day when I came back on Monday. Everyone was double-parked, especially along E. Mosholu Parkway South. I probably risked several tickets stopping to take pictures. The broom came by as I was driving away and I grabbed my camera to get a couple of shots out my car window, but they, like my driving, aren’t the greatest.

This is probably more reflective of my digital camera skills, but it was hard for me to get some close-up shots of litter. I had my brother-in-law’s nice, multifunction Nikon with a big lens and I couldn’t get it to focus for a nice close shot of all the little pieces of trash in the leaves at the park – you notice them as you sit on a bench, but they’re harder to see as you walk by.

Also integral to the outcome of my observation: one friendly neighborhood resident. (Eek.) When I came back with the camera on Monday (and I imagine I probably stuck out in the neighborhood), I started taking careful pictures retracing the route I’d taken on Saturday. When I came to a building on E. 205th Street, I stopped to take a picture of the Operation Clean Halls sign posted on the wall. As soon as I finished, a middle-aged man accosted me and asked, “What you doing here?” I began to explain that I was doing a school project, when he interrupted with “No more projects here. Get away from my building. That’s all I say.” I was kind of rattled and stepped away from him to keep walking along E. 205th Street, but as he hovered and followed me, I just turned around and went back the other way. (I’m going to guess he doesn’t want to participate in an oral history interview.) After that, I was kind of freaked out. Most of the pictures I took after that were from my car.

Over all, this activity was pretty interesting. I’m not sure what to compare the neighborhood to, since I didn’t see it twenty or thirty years ago. At the Columbian Association, Jimmy the cook had described picking up trash in Bedford-Stuyvesant, another of the neighborhoods named on the old list. He remembered garbage along the streets and people throwing their trash out their windows as the sanmen passed by. If Grand Concourse was like that thirty years ago, it didn’t seem so now. There was still litter in the streets, some of it kind of strange, but it did seem like people were making more recycling efforts, whether voluntary or compulsory. Some of the houses seemed better taken care of than others; things like planted flowers, Operation Clean Halls signs, a business owner hosing his sidewalk, and the workers picking up trash seemed to indicate that people were making an effort in the neighborhood. Heavy-traffic roadways seemed to have more trash, probably because it’s harder to monitor and clean up. I’d also guess this is a cleaner area of the Bronx due to its proximity to Fordham, Lehman College, Botanical Gardens and the zoo. Grand Concourse is huge and I wasn’t able to observe all of it, but the farther south I drove, the dirtier the neighborhoods seemed to get. But the cleanup efforts I saw in place did seem promising.

Translating this ethnography to a museum context, it would be interesting to see how the garbage situation in the neighborhood compares to the one hinted at in the DSNY document I found. Posted signs I saw indicated efforts to regulate and clean up, with mixed results. “Before and after” pictures would be an easy display, if “before” pictures could be found. I’m also curious about how the neighborhood was before it got to the state it must have been in twenty-something years ago. I’d gather there were worse neighborhoods than this, but I thought of a comment in Sullivan’s Rats from a man who grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn in the 1950s. He mentioned that the neighborhood now is a shelled-out version of its former self; he remembers a time when people hosed off their sidewalks and picked up their trash, but he indicated that that’s not the case these days. Neighborhoods seem to go through cycles; it would be interesting to see a museum exhibit on various neighborhoods like Grand Concourse and the cycles they’ve gone through with regards to sanitation. Grand Concourse seemed to be on the upswing in the small block I covered, but it – and other areas farther south along the Concourse which I drove through – could still use work.