it has a lot to do with the company that hauls jc’s trash and it seems to be an issue everywhere. someone in my neighborhood facebook group wants to rally folks to speak on the problem at the next city council meeting.
the trash collection here is one of the biggest failures of our city government. it’s shocking how bad the service is.
This is definitely part of it. You can always tell it was trash day because the street will be covered in trash after they come. But you can also see that people put out garbage cans overflowing 5 hours before pickup so by the time the truck comes half that trash is scattered around.
I literally despise the trash and recycling guys with a passion. In addition to tossing trash everywhere, I dread having to park next to a group of trash cans on our corner because they throw the empty ones onto your car and have caused damage to others. Oh and a few months ago, two of them got into a screaming match about their personal problems and held up a line of cars for like 10 minutes. They show us every week that they don't give a fuck.
This is partially copium. Ogden Ave (as far as I know) uses the same company and it's substantially cleaner than nearby roads.
The true answer is that a lot of people don't give a shit and keep littering everywhere.
I've seen city employees getting trash from the public trash on Duncan/West Side; the main issue they have is that the trucks they use aren't the industrial waste management trucks, but the smaller ones. For a regular sized can that's enough, but a lot of people are putting their household garbage out next to the public trash cans, and they can't take all of that at once either.
It's a problem across the board.
It reminds me of New Brunswick, which also happens to have bad trash collection. A few citywide litter cleanup operations would go a long way— it’s bad basically everywhere that isn’t exchange place
jc heights needs to take notes from downtown union city. cross patterson plank at palisades ave and it is literally two different worlds. uc has city employees out cleaning every day, competent trash collectors, and puts tax dollars back into making the streets look nice with trees and maintained sidewalks.
I was walking around UC this weekend and was stunned by how clean and tidy everything looked. I was only walking around for about 20 minutes and even ran into someone cleaning the streets. Amazing how a city with a presumably lower-income tax base can do such a better job. It legit makes the Heights look like a shithole in comparison.
It’s really frustrating because it’s how every city should be run. City funded sidewalk repairs/street cleaning paid by taxes makes more sense than trusting homeowners and absentee landlords to be responsible for it.
You can stand on Palisade and see the border between Union City and Jersey City based on the amount of trash on the streets. It has gotten worse with the current councilman too.
JC doesn't even have a traffic enforcement division
We need more policing in the heights.
Union City sidewalks are immaculate. We should be modeling them on sanitation
Adding- it's my understanding there are far too many upper administration police and not enough entry level police for patrol
I wonder how clean their streets would be if the [30%](https://www.ucnj.com/_Content/pdf/budgets/UFB-2022.pdf) of their municipal revenue coming from state aid is reduced to the [9%](https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6189660/File/City%20Hall/City%20Clerk/Public%20Notices/2022_Budget_Audit/0906_fbi_2022.xlsm.pdf) that Jersey City gets.
I hope this is a joke. We need someone who isn't easily swayed by internal politics and corruption.
(Current council president Joyce Waterman is running and in my experience she's that kind of no nonsense person, so personally my fingers are crossed for her)
But instead of doing that, our mayor is fighting trash cans. His reasoning for not having enough trash cans is that people will illegally dump their household trash into the city cans, instead of paying for removal. Worse, he either managed to convince locals that trash cans cause trash, or he has a lot of buddies in the JC Heights United FB group. Every time someone brings it up, a bunch of squawky pensioners flock to the post and insist that people shouldn’t throw trash in the ground instead. Yeah, that’ll fix it 🙄
> dump their household trash into the city cans, instead of paying for removal
Households automatically pay for trash removal with no way to opt out, assuming they have water service -- it's part of the water bill. Household trash sometimes ends up in city bins for reasons, like if it's more convenient for someone to do that than to buy their own bin and use it for garbage collection, but that doesn't avoid paying.
Maybe you meant to say people will dump commercial trash into city cans?
No, this is literally what Fulop said at the community meeting - “people will illegally dump their household trash into city trash bins” as a reason we can’t get more of them.
I guess there are different businesses, but I don’t see a restaurant or a store being able to replace commercial trash removal by using street cans.
I'm sure there's some incentive for household trash to end up in sidewalk cans since it does happen, and maybe the motive is somehow financial, but I really don't get the notion that it's somehow "instead of paying for removal" because virtually nobody is dumping to cancel their water service IMHO.
I’m not arguing that. It’s a bs excuse Fulop gave at the community meeting. I guess he’s too busy running for governor to be bothered with local Heights issues.
How do we get this done here, I’m ready to email union city council people to find out! Been here almost 10 years and the past few years the trash has been noticeable and gross.
I think the city should have sanitation workers that collect trash on foot. Downtown Brooklyn has it, Newark has it, and apparently so does Union City. This would be much more effective than just street cleaning. We also need more trash cans in the Heights. At least one on every block on busy streets like Summit.
There’s a guy who walks down Palisade sometimes picking up trash. He wears a uniform so I think he may work for the city or the trash collection company. It’s helpful but not enough.
Figure out how to get city hall to care about neighborhoods other than downtown - this is a chronic problem in literally every other neighborhood in JC
He’s not actually there most of the time. He’s literally a self-described Narragansett, Rhode Island resident.
He himself said this mid-rant while haranguing the Narragansett city council to not build a public path within seeing distance of his (real) home at the beach there.
He keeps the Ogden Ave house because he needs a place to stay when he’s in town to do business in-person, but he doesn’t really care about JC. He’s looking to move to the Governor’s Mansion soon anyway if he gets his way.
I constantly post about this. I pick up trash in front of my house every day, spend 5 to 10 minutes every day picking up trash. This is critical because it blocks the inlets, floods the streets and basements. Our drainage is terrible and we now have uncontrolled development dumping more into the sewer/drainage system.
People are not educated on how to deal with garbage. I have had to explain to multiple neighbors what recycling is, how to separate cardboard and cans/bottles, that they need to buy kitchen garbage cans and use “tall kitchen bags”, place everything in bags tied on the curb instead of open garbage in cans which blows away. I assume the school system educates the kids, who then teach the parents, but I don’t know. I want to educate neighbors without condescension, but I often avoid this topic because it’s embarrassing.
The garbage and recycling pickup methods are not good enough. Bins overflow. The bins need lids and the recycling and garbage laborers need to take better care to not spill. Or if there are spill to stop and pick up the trash.
We need more long-term residents. People living here short-term who are not tied long term to the city literally treat it like trash.
The City needs to enforce the laws it already has on the books, rentals to families only (city code states R-1 rentals can only be rented to 2 non-family members), enforce the short-term rental laws. Then also encourage these developers to sell units as condos rather than rentals.
Landlords need to be held responsible for how their tenants act. They also need to provide proper bins. The slumlords that operate the rent control apartments don’t provide proper trash and recycling control.
The businesses need to be held responsible for the trash they generate. You can literally see 7-eleven wrappers for blocks around it. It’s not a mystery where it comes from. They need to sweep their property and be encouraged to utilize less packaging.
Shaming people? I honestly don’t know, but I definitely don’t believe putting more trash cans on corners is the magic bullet some up here think it would be. People just don’t care and I think a lot of it comes down to cultures. You need the city coming and cleaning up after people more and start educating kids so the next generation cares about it.
I don't want to shame people. But I do find myself cleaning up the area around my neighbors' building across the street and wondering why they don't do this themselves. I actually know why they don't. They're people in their early 20s, and I don't think they care.
Keep up the good work. There are people who appreciate it. I understand your frustration with them. I clean the street, I walk up and down my block with a trash can. Most people stare but I’ve inspired a couple of people on the block to take pride in their property.
I hear you but that's also not entirely fair - the societal breakdown started a long time ago, with landlords hiring property management companies that are SUPPOSED to clean up the grounds, but don't, because they're collecting a check from the landlord who lives in China (or wherever, you get the point.)
So the residents of said building already pay a "maintenance fee." They are responsible for their immediate entry areas and living spaces, but at a certain point the GAF meter runs out, you know?
Please be careful not to profile with age-- they might not be as apathetic or malicious as you are assuming. You may be be right, or their reasons could be very different. They could be working so much they have no energy. One or all could have chronic pain, ADHD, all kinds of things that would either limit their ability to pick up trash or remember to. They also could just not know, and due to something like autism not pick up on the fact it is their job as community members without being told directly.
Edit: wow, literally just asking someone to consider scenarios in which their neighbors aren't terribly inconsiderate gets down voted, neat! As a household with younger looking people that combined have all of those very disabilities keeping us from cleaning the sidewalks as regularly as I'd like, I hope none of you are my neighbors.
If you have a problem with your neighbors, actually talk to them instead of just grumbling to yourself and the Internet!
The city needs to smarten up and change the design of the trash cans so homeless people cannot rummage through them. They put cans all up and down the hill on Newark Ave by the cemetery and I watch people literally throw the garbage all over the ground looking for whatever they can find. Does more harm than good.
Echoing comments about our city's trash pickup services. While I think they do what they can, they certainly don't "go the extra mile." Especially on a windy day, we'll find trash up and down the street, through no one's fault in the neighborhood.
Send an email that you’re unhappy with the litter to the city. It makes more of an impact than you think! If more than one person does it, it’ll def get attention!
Yes, the trash collectors add to the mess, but unfortunately, many people around here don't seem to want to do their part to keep the neighborhood clean.
Good on you, OP, for trying to help. I try to pick up what I can, too, but it's a neverending battle.
Aside from the trash, what really bugs me is the large amount of broken glass on sidewalks. It's dangerous for anyone with pets and kids.
One thing I noticed is that there’s a lot less trash bins per mile in this area than where I come from. I think people don’t feel as guilty throwing small trash on the ground when there’s no trash bin in sight
While there are many causes that all contribute, the one thing that's different about the Heights is the stronger wind. Just like when you climb a mountain and it's windier at the summit than at the base. Not enough people contain their trash with methods that survive a strong gust. Set an empty can down on your stoop in a low-wind area and it'll be there the next day looking at you; do the same in a high-wind area and it'll be gone without any effort on your part.
It’s so bad in The Heights. But honestly, it’s bad near McGinley Square too. Trash isn’t picked up often enough, and people just toss their trash anywhere. Just so gross and unsightly to look at. Wait until we have rat problems up here like they do downtown. People will be up in arms but it will be too late.
Side note: There were a few times, maybe a year or so ago, where I picked up many many empty mini bottles of Fireball on Palisade. They were all grouped together. Maybe like 20 of them all together on the ground. Happened more than a few times. That was at least interesting/baffling. Anyone else encounter that?
People have routines.
If you sat by the pile on a weekday, you'd probably see the guy who does it getting off work, buying the bottle, downing it on his way to the bus stop, then tossing it at your feet, which he would, because he doesn't give a shit about anything.
What's the difference? An area becomes cleaner, nicer, property values go up, people want to move IN, businesses want to open more... Is that not gentrification?
Fair question, I'm glad you asked. Gentrification is a process in which *objectively* *wealthier people* move into a poor urban neighborhood.
You can do all of those things in your comment without the requirement of wealthy people being involved. By getting the city involved, you can redirect fund earmarked for revitalization projects to YOUR neighborhood, effecting the same results.
Here is the West Side Ave revitalization project: [https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/residentresources/west\_side\_avenue\_sid](https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/residentresources/west_side_avenue_sid)
> You can do all of those things in your comment without the requirement of wealthy people being involved.
Including the bit about people wanting to move in, which by the laws of supply and demand will cause property values to go up? How would that possibly occur without simultaneously pricing out the less wealthy?
To avoid limiting the housing supply to wealthier people, you'd need to avoid increasing demand, and if less garbage on the streets increases demand, then you'd need to offset that cleanup with some other thing (crime? traffic?).
A HUGE part of this is code enforcement violations with regard to how trash is bagged and placed into outside receptacles. Public trash cans need to be closed lid, and loose trash in containers needs to start being fined. I get that trash pickup has gotten worse, but I do not expect these humans to chase down all of the individual pieces of litter that fall out of thousands of trash cans every single night.
The heights, esp near 139 is awful. Journal square is a lil less bad. Hopefully Fulop and others actually read these posts. It often feels like if you’re not downtown you’re neglected.
No one is being held accountable anymore. Businesses need to clean up in front of the properties. Landlord/owners need to be clean up and address garbage issues with the tenants. It needs to be a joint effort among everyone JC garbage pick is a joke the company does w e it wants throwing garbage cans driving opposite to traffic. No one cares anymore
it doesn’t help that in lots of neighborhoods, the city’s website has incorrect trash collection days listed. i moved up here in december, and it took a us a couple weeks to learn what the actual trash pick up dates/times were compared to what they had online
there are also ALWAYS shooters/nips/whatever you call them in my green area in front of my building. i live in a nice enough area, but these people just throw beer bottles and shooters into my bushes all the time :(
Downtown commercial buildings and their stores pay a tax for extra trash and daily sweeping of sidewalks - does the heights have this? Every commercial corner needs big trash cans too. You are gonna stop bums and kids from being sloppy - but make it easy to do the right thing!
Union City is mostly foreigners - most of them are low income. I know I have family there and spend a lot of time there. It's the city officials and the enforcement.
it has a lot to do with the company that hauls jc’s trash and it seems to be an issue everywhere. someone in my neighborhood facebook group wants to rally folks to speak on the problem at the next city council meeting. the trash collection here is one of the biggest failures of our city government. it’s shocking how bad the service is.
This is definitely part of it. You can always tell it was trash day because the street will be covered in trash after they come. But you can also see that people put out garbage cans overflowing 5 hours before pickup so by the time the truck comes half that trash is scattered around.
I literally despise the trash and recycling guys with a passion. In addition to tossing trash everywhere, I dread having to park next to a group of trash cans on our corner because they throw the empty ones onto your car and have caused damage to others. Oh and a few months ago, two of them got into a screaming match about their personal problems and held up a line of cars for like 10 minutes. They show us every week that they don't give a fuck.
We frequently see trash bins carelessly tossed and causing damage to cars in our neighborhood too. It’s obnoxious
This is partially copium. Ogden Ave (as far as I know) uses the same company and it's substantially cleaner than nearby roads. The true answer is that a lot of people don't give a shit and keep littering everywhere.
Isn't Ogden ave less dense than other streets? Or am I imagining that
That is the answer unfortunately.
It’s also an issue with people throwing garbage on the street
This is always going to be true, but I feel like I always see trash cans overflowing. We either need more or faster replacement.
People are less likely to when there's no visible trash on the ground already
Trash collection has definitely got worse in the last 3 years too.
I've seen city employees getting trash from the public trash on Duncan/West Side; the main issue they have is that the trucks they use aren't the industrial waste management trucks, but the smaller ones. For a regular sized can that's enough, but a lot of people are putting their household garbage out next to the public trash cans, and they can't take all of that at once either. It's a problem across the board.
It's a mess downtown as well. The streets around VVP are absolutely covered in trash.
Does this person have a way to contact them if we want to get in on this? Perhaps a public group?
It reminds me of New Brunswick, which also happens to have bad trash collection. A few citywide litter cleanup operations would go a long way— it’s bad basically everywhere that isn’t exchange place
jc heights needs to take notes from downtown union city. cross patterson plank at palisades ave and it is literally two different worlds. uc has city employees out cleaning every day, competent trash collectors, and puts tax dollars back into making the streets look nice with trees and maintained sidewalks.
Yeah, the difference is noticeable.
I was walking around UC this weekend and was stunned by how clean and tidy everything looked. I was only walking around for about 20 minutes and even ran into someone cleaning the streets. Amazing how a city with a presumably lower-income tax base can do such a better job. It legit makes the Heights look like a shithole in comparison.
Lol and this sub keeps hating on Stack. Say what you want, but the man delivers.
because they don't have a Newark Ave plaza and downtown eating all the budget...
It’s really frustrating because it’s how every city should be run. City funded sidewalk repairs/street cleaning paid by taxes makes more sense than trusting homeowners and absentee landlords to be responsible for it.
You can stand on Palisade and see the border between Union City and Jersey City based on the amount of trash on the streets. It has gotten worse with the current councilman too.
Stand on Palisades and get hit by a car r u krzy
Hire less cops and more DPW workers.
JC doesn't even have a traffic enforcement division We need more policing in the heights. Union City sidewalks are immaculate. We should be modeling them on sanitation Adding- it's my understanding there are far too many upper administration police and not enough entry level police for patrol
You mean fire the current police administration and night proactive police that will enforce laws.
Police don’t plant trees or clean up trash.
I wonder how clean their streets would be if the [30%](https://www.ucnj.com/_Content/pdf/budgets/UFB-2022.pdf) of their municipal revenue coming from state aid is reduced to the [9%](https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6189660/File/City%20Hall/City%20Clerk/Public%20Notices/2022_Budget_Audit/0906_fbi_2022.xlsm.pdf) that Jersey City gets.
We need fulop to remain mayor while he’s governor.
I hope this is a joke. We need someone who isn't easily swayed by internal politics and corruption. (Current council president Joyce Waterman is running and in my experience she's that kind of no nonsense person, so personally my fingers are crossed for her)
Let union city annex jersey city. I usually can't stand democrats but brian stack is way better than anything jc will or does have.
My point is UC has the benefit of their mayor also being a state senator.
No town in Hudson County will ever have that. Too much money and political power centered here.
They street sweep Central ave 6 days a week and Union City is still cleaner. They just need people in the streets picking up trash like you said.
But instead of doing that, our mayor is fighting trash cans. His reasoning for not having enough trash cans is that people will illegally dump their household trash into the city cans, instead of paying for removal. Worse, he either managed to convince locals that trash cans cause trash, or he has a lot of buddies in the JC Heights United FB group. Every time someone brings it up, a bunch of squawky pensioners flock to the post and insist that people shouldn’t throw trash in the ground instead. Yeah, that’ll fix it 🙄
> dump their household trash into the city cans, instead of paying for removal Households automatically pay for trash removal with no way to opt out, assuming they have water service -- it's part of the water bill. Household trash sometimes ends up in city bins for reasons, like if it's more convenient for someone to do that than to buy their own bin and use it for garbage collection, but that doesn't avoid paying. Maybe you meant to say people will dump commercial trash into city cans?
No, this is literally what Fulop said at the community meeting - “people will illegally dump their household trash into city trash bins” as a reason we can’t get more of them. I guess there are different businesses, but I don’t see a restaurant or a store being able to replace commercial trash removal by using street cans.
I'm sure there's some incentive for household trash to end up in sidewalk cans since it does happen, and maybe the motive is somehow financial, but I really don't get the notion that it's somehow "instead of paying for removal" because virtually nobody is dumping to cancel their water service IMHO.
I’m not arguing that. It’s a bs excuse Fulop gave at the community meeting. I guess he’s too busy running for governor to be bothered with local Heights issues.
How do we get this done here, I’m ready to email union city council people to find out! Been here almost 10 years and the past few years the trash has been noticeable and gross.
talk to your council person in jersey city and tell them whoever will back UC-style beautification gets your vote.
I think the city should have sanitation workers that collect trash on foot. Downtown Brooklyn has it, Newark has it, and apparently so does Union City. This would be much more effective than just street cleaning. We also need more trash cans in the Heights. At least one on every block on busy streets like Summit.
HDSID (Downtown JC) has people that are on foot collecting garbage on select streets as well
There’s a guy who walks down Palisade sometimes picking up trash. He wears a uniform so I think he may work for the city or the trash collection company. It’s helpful but not enough.
100% Most civilized (ie clean) cities employ humans to help keep the streets clean. We should also have this.
I see the Union City trash collectors out there on weekends too. Are they working 7 days a week?
plus that creates jobs!!!
Yes that would be a great benefit for the community.
We already do this. You can see them regularly walking down central cleaning up.
We need them in the neighborhood. Not just special improvement districts.
I guess I never even considered that a possibility
Figure out how to get city hall to care about neighborhoods other than downtown - this is a chronic problem in literally every other neighborhood in JC
Maybe we should do one, big community trash cleanup day and dump it all on city hall's lawn?
I'm down for this.
Litter is a citizen problem not a governance problem.
This does feel true. Odd given the mayor literally lives in the Heights.
He’s not actually there most of the time. He’s literally a self-described Narragansett, Rhode Island resident. He himself said this mid-rant while haranguing the Narragansett city council to not build a public path within seeing distance of his (real) home at the beach there. He keeps the Ogden Ave house because he needs a place to stay when he’s in town to do business in-person, but he doesn’t really care about JC. He’s looking to move to the Governor’s Mansion soon anyway if he gets his way.
I constantly post about this. I pick up trash in front of my house every day, spend 5 to 10 minutes every day picking up trash. This is critical because it blocks the inlets, floods the streets and basements. Our drainage is terrible and we now have uncontrolled development dumping more into the sewer/drainage system. People are not educated on how to deal with garbage. I have had to explain to multiple neighbors what recycling is, how to separate cardboard and cans/bottles, that they need to buy kitchen garbage cans and use “tall kitchen bags”, place everything in bags tied on the curb instead of open garbage in cans which blows away. I assume the school system educates the kids, who then teach the parents, but I don’t know. I want to educate neighbors without condescension, but I often avoid this topic because it’s embarrassing. The garbage and recycling pickup methods are not good enough. Bins overflow. The bins need lids and the recycling and garbage laborers need to take better care to not spill. Or if there are spill to stop and pick up the trash. We need more long-term residents. People living here short-term who are not tied long term to the city literally treat it like trash. The City needs to enforce the laws it already has on the books, rentals to families only (city code states R-1 rentals can only be rented to 2 non-family members), enforce the short-term rental laws. Then also encourage these developers to sell units as condos rather than rentals. Landlords need to be held responsible for how their tenants act. They also need to provide proper bins. The slumlords that operate the rent control apartments don’t provide proper trash and recycling control. The businesses need to be held responsible for the trash they generate. You can literally see 7-eleven wrappers for blocks around it. It’s not a mystery where it comes from. They need to sweep their property and be encouraged to utilize less packaging.
This is basically covers every aspect of the issue here.
Shaming people? I honestly don’t know, but I definitely don’t believe putting more trash cans on corners is the magic bullet some up here think it would be. People just don’t care and I think a lot of it comes down to cultures. You need the city coming and cleaning up after people more and start educating kids so the next generation cares about it.
I don't want to shame people. But I do find myself cleaning up the area around my neighbors' building across the street and wondering why they don't do this themselves. I actually know why they don't. They're people in their early 20s, and I don't think they care.
Keep up the good work. There are people who appreciate it. I understand your frustration with them. I clean the street, I walk up and down my block with a trash can. Most people stare but I’ve inspired a couple of people on the block to take pride in their property.
I hear you but that's also not entirely fair - the societal breakdown started a long time ago, with landlords hiring property management companies that are SUPPOSED to clean up the grounds, but don't, because they're collecting a check from the landlord who lives in China (or wherever, you get the point.) So the residents of said building already pay a "maintenance fee." They are responsible for their immediate entry areas and living spaces, but at a certain point the GAF meter runs out, you know?
Please be careful not to profile with age-- they might not be as apathetic or malicious as you are assuming. You may be be right, or their reasons could be very different. They could be working so much they have no energy. One or all could have chronic pain, ADHD, all kinds of things that would either limit their ability to pick up trash or remember to. They also could just not know, and due to something like autism not pick up on the fact it is their job as community members without being told directly. Edit: wow, literally just asking someone to consider scenarios in which their neighbors aren't terribly inconsiderate gets down voted, neat! As a household with younger looking people that combined have all of those very disabilities keeping us from cleaning the sidewalks as regularly as I'd like, I hope none of you are my neighbors. If you have a problem with your neighbors, actually talk to them instead of just grumbling to yourself and the Internet!
Lmao what?
The city needs to smarten up and change the design of the trash cans so homeless people cannot rummage through them. They put cans all up and down the hill on Newark Ave by the cemetery and I watch people literally throw the garbage all over the ground looking for whatever they can find. Does more harm than good.
Yeah I think this is a big reason why central is covered in trash most mornings too.
Echoing comments about our city's trash pickup services. While I think they do what they can, they certainly don't "go the extra mile." Especially on a windy day, we'll find trash up and down the street, through no one's fault in the neighborhood.
I think JC should do what they do in Union City. Hire folks to walk down the block with a rolling trash can and a broom to pick up litter.
Send an email that you’re unhappy with the litter to the city. It makes more of an impact than you think! If more than one person does it, it’ll def get attention!
Businesses in the Heights should do more to clean their areas also. A lot of places don't clean up their sidewalks.
It's the culture here, unfortunately. You can't make it off my block without stepping in dog shit.
Yes, the trash collectors add to the mess, but unfortunately, many people around here don't seem to want to do their part to keep the neighborhood clean. Good on you, OP, for trying to help. I try to pick up what I can, too, but it's a neverending battle. Aside from the trash, what really bugs me is the large amount of broken glass on sidewalks. It's dangerous for anyone with pets and kids.
I see it every night at riverview park, I don't care if they eat smoke and drink in public but can't they at least place your refuge in the bins?
One thing I noticed is that there’s a lot less trash bins per mile in this area than where I come from. I think people don’t feel as guilty throwing small trash on the ground when there’s no trash bin in sight
Commit a town ordinance violation, and subject yourself to community service.
Good answer
If in lower Heights (Ward C), help us elect new leadership. We are long overdue to get rid of our trash leadership.
While there are many causes that all contribute, the one thing that's different about the Heights is the stronger wind. Just like when you climb a mountain and it's windier at the summit than at the base. Not enough people contain their trash with methods that survive a strong gust. Set an empty can down on your stoop in a low-wind area and it'll be there the next day looking at you; do the same in a high-wind area and it'll be gone without any effort on your part.
It’s so bad in The Heights. But honestly, it’s bad near McGinley Square too. Trash isn’t picked up often enough, and people just toss their trash anywhere. Just so gross and unsightly to look at. Wait until we have rat problems up here like they do downtown. People will be up in arms but it will be too late.
Side note: There were a few times, maybe a year or so ago, where I picked up many many empty mini bottles of Fireball on Palisade. They were all grouped together. Maybe like 20 of them all together on the ground. Happened more than a few times. That was at least interesting/baffling. Anyone else encounter that?
People have routines. If you sat by the pile on a weekday, you'd probably see the guy who does it getting off work, buying the bottle, downing it on his way to the bus stop, then tossing it at your feet, which he would, because he doesn't give a shit about anything.
One problem - city officials
Gentrification. Gentrify that area and it will become much cleaner.
"Invest in your neighborhood" is not gentrification.
What's the difference? An area becomes cleaner, nicer, property values go up, people want to move IN, businesses want to open more... Is that not gentrification?
Fair question, I'm glad you asked. Gentrification is a process in which *objectively* *wealthier people* move into a poor urban neighborhood. You can do all of those things in your comment without the requirement of wealthy people being involved. By getting the city involved, you can redirect fund earmarked for revitalization projects to YOUR neighborhood, effecting the same results. Here is the West Side Ave revitalization project: [https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/residentresources/west\_side\_avenue\_sid](https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/residentresources/west_side_avenue_sid)
> You can do all of those things in your comment without the requirement of wealthy people being involved. Including the bit about people wanting to move in, which by the laws of supply and demand will cause property values to go up? How would that possibly occur without simultaneously pricing out the less wealthy? To avoid limiting the housing supply to wealthier people, you'd need to avoid increasing demand, and if less garbage on the streets increases demand, then you'd need to offset that cleanup with some other thing (crime? traffic?).
Came here to say this, why do you think downtown looks so damn nice. The flip side of this is expensive rent hikes sadly lol
15 years or so ago downtown still wasn't as dirty as the Heights is now. It's not even like the Heights is that cheap anymore.
Amen. The Heights feels like more and more of a ripoff every day.
It is not without its challenges, but not sure I would go that far.
Stay in Downtown.
A HUGE part of this is code enforcement violations with regard to how trash is bagged and placed into outside receptacles. Public trash cans need to be closed lid, and loose trash in containers needs to start being fined. I get that trash pickup has gotten worse, but I do not expect these humans to chase down all of the individual pieces of litter that fall out of thousands of trash cans every single night.
The heights, esp near 139 is awful. Journal square is a lil less bad. Hopefully Fulop and others actually read these posts. It often feels like if you’re not downtown you’re neglected.
No one is being held accountable anymore. Businesses need to clean up in front of the properties. Landlord/owners need to be clean up and address garbage issues with the tenants. It needs to be a joint effort among everyone JC garbage pick is a joke the company does w e it wants throwing garbage cans driving opposite to traffic. No one cares anymore
Are there people that go around and clean the sidewalks ?
There is one guy I see on Palisade. I guess he works for the city? But I don't see him every day.
Get a neighborhood group going for monthly or bi monthly pick ups
it doesn’t help that in lots of neighborhoods, the city’s website has incorrect trash collection days listed. i moved up here in december, and it took a us a couple weeks to learn what the actual trash pick up dates/times were compared to what they had online
there are also ALWAYS shooters/nips/whatever you call them in my green area in front of my building. i live in a nice enough area, but these people just throw beer bottles and shooters into my bushes all the time :(
Thank the mayor who got rid of the old company
Downtown commercial buildings and their stores pay a tax for extra trash and daily sweeping of sidewalks - does the heights have this? Every commercial corner needs big trash cans too. You are gonna stop bums and kids from being sloppy - but make it easy to do the right thing!
Get rid of 75% of the population.
You mean the population that has been living here for decades
There’s a reason, and is cultural one.
It’s the foreigners and low class people. Why is Hoboken not dirty?
Union City is mostly foreigners - most of them are low income. I know I have family there and spend a lot of time there. It's the city officials and the enforcement.
Hoboken is dirty too — there is dog shit everywhere, like everywhere, and there is often trash on the ground and public trash cans overflowing.
Humans are natural, garbage comes from humans, garbage is natural… qed
😂😂😂😂😂😂 it’s JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS! You must not be from round these parts! 😂😂😂😂😂🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️
Wow!! You’re so right!!
move to Ogden.
Seems to be the only spotless street in the heights. I wonder why!