“Dead skunk in the middle of the road … stench from high heaven!”
I thought of Loudon Wainright’s 1970s roadkill-inspired classic yesterday when I discovered a dead skunk in the middle of Independence Avenue at 237th Street in the Bronx around 11:30am.
He had been there for a while, according to others who had seen him.
Thus began a real-life “thought” experiment. We wonder: How long would it take the Department of Sanitation under Mayor Eric Adams’ Get Stuff Done to remove a life-threatening corpse from the middle of a New York City street in 95-degree heat ?
A little while, it seems!
Being a Good Samaritan (or a “Karen,” in the misogynistic view of some), I immediately called 311 for a service request for the dead animal, but given the harassment that too often comes from reporting 311 tips, according to ours. reporting colleagues, did not leave my name and number.
Later, when I looked online, I discovered that 311 had not logged our request. Why did you cut it?
Two other people, however, had submitted requests for service at 3 o’clock — and they said DSNY would come and pick up the bloated corpse “within two days.” Two days?
“Holy crap! Is that thing still there?” said Pedro, a doorman at a nearby building, after I told him the body was still there around 4:00 p.m. “They’d better get it soon. This thing will explode! Disgusting!”
On the road, motorists stared at the dead animal as they tried to avoid it. How long before a careless motorist crushes the thing, making it even harder to scrape off the pavement?
The road rage fatality, which happened at the edge of the crosswalk, inadvertently shined a light on a pressing issue for other road users: Ultrawide Independence Avenue, while it has bars at some intersections and speed bumps, could use even more. pedestrian infrastructure that saves lives.
Meanwhile, I took our complaint to Twitter.
Several called @nyc311 to the dead boat in the street at 3720 Independence. (I did it 4 hours ago.) Will it really take @NYCSanitation 2 days to get to it in 95 degree weather? Things seem about to explode. pic.twitter.com/lgVxw2RVf8
— EJKessler (@EJKessler) July 24, 2022
At 6:45 p.m., when I looked again, the bloated, fly-spotted carcass was still there, rotting in the sun.
“How windy!” said a woman pushing a baby carriage.
At 7:09, I moved to DefCon3 for special prayers, tweeting/tweeting my Council member and every reporter’s favorite sewer group.
“Will lead Streetsblog headlines tomorrow!” I could have said.
It’s a nine-minute drive from the nearest DSNY garage on West 215th, between Ninth and 10th streets. Not a soul working on Sunday? “Two days” can work at 45 degrees, but not at 95.
More to come…
Meanwhile, in other news from the weekend:
- WATCH!: Bronx crooks use their car to run over and rob a pedestrian. (NYDN)
- The New York Post finally figured out how to use Howsmydriving.com, running the BMW driver’s license plate that crushed a first responder’s leg during an accident last week (as Streetsblog does for every traffic violence story) . And whaddaya know it – he’s a “speed scoffer”!
- “Dark shops” have peaked, according to the NYT’s Ginia Bellafante.
- Janno Lieber defends the MTA’s case for subway storm resilience in an AmNY op-ed.
- Once the MTA did a monthly survey of subway riders, The Post was quick to report that safety concerns came out on top, even as transit crime fell.
- Mayor Adams slammed the highway controllers. (NY Post)
- The Daily News editorial staff is concerned about the lack of lifeguards at the city’s swimming pools. Mara Gay in the Times also makes a salient point about the classist and racist legacy of the city’s swimming norms.
- The Daily New analyzed what’s behind the MTA’s snail’s pace on subway safety improvements.
- Downtown NIMBYs are suing to stop a tower from being built on the site of a South Street Seaport parking lot. (NYDN)
- The Times took Liz Holtzman’s bid for a congressional seat seriously 50 years after she made headlines … in Congress.
- The beach in the Rockaways was closed, Gothamist reported, after people were endangered by sharks, and our friend Christopher Robbins noted that people are endangered by cars on Flatbush Avenue every minute and nobody does anything. He also wrote about the Brighton Beach public bath. (Hell’s Gate)
