Candy Rose, as she wants to be called, likes to keep Throggs Neck smelling as sweet as her name.
But in an ironic twist, the feisty 55-year resident argued successfully for the city to remove a trash basket near a bus stop on E. Tremont Avenue.
That’s because abusers used it as a personal dumping ground, said Rose.
“People would come throw big bags in there.”
And despite a sticker sign reading “LITTER ONLY: No Household Trash/No Business Trash”, Rose saw people dump heaps of “stinky” Duane Reade and CVS bags into the basket to overflowing, looking like an out-of-control volcano.
The trash receptacle was set up by the Bx40 and Bx42 bus stop.
The problem became so much for Rose she began snapping photos of violators. On top of the trash, Rose documented other items like a pair of brown tennis shoes and a blue storage bin left by the side of the basket.
“Somebody dumped their clothes there,” said Rose. “This is like women’s clothes, men’s clothes.”
Her ire piqued mid-April after she saw a man dragging the basket along the sidewalk and towards Milton Place.
Rose said she was stunned other neighbors didn’t seem to care.
“What are you gonna do when people just look the other way?” said Rose, who wound up calling Senator Jeff Klein’s office for help, even though the problem was outside state jurisdicition.
“We’ve had problems throughout the city of people using these pails, which are meant for litter, not for ulterior purposes and personal use,” said Klein, “so I also appreciate Candy for bringing this problem to my attention.”
A week after his intervention, Sanitation honored Rose’s request to remove the culprit trash basket after it determined that there were a sufficient number of other nearby litter baskets to “handle the amount of pedestrian traffic.”
Rose has maintained a strong vigilance in her Throggs Neck community since she moved in 21 years ago “when the community was so clean”.
Reach reporter David Cruz at 718-742-3383 or dcruz@cnglocal.com.
