This Bronx is burning — our nostrils.
Callers from the 10468 ZIP code — Kingsbridge, Marble Hill and Fordham Manor — have logged more 311 hotline complaints in the last year than anywhere else in the Odorous Apple, where garbage complaints citywide have more than doubled in recent years, The Post has learned.
Residents called in 986 gripes about trash in that Bronx nabe — a nose-pinching 21% of all complaints in the entire borough.
And the 311 system overall fielded 31,890 complaints about dirty streets and sidewalks throughout the five boroughs from Sept. 21, 2022 through Sept. 20 — a whopping 170% increase from 11,813 during the same period three years earlier and a 2% increase from the 31,135 last year, a Post examination of city data found.
The total was 125% higher than pre-pandemic levels four years earlier.
“There is a garbage can right there, and they just throw it in the street. These low-lives! These idiots don’t care!” raged Perry Menninger about his neighbors on Kingsbridge Avenue in 10468.
“I have not seen Sanitation [workers] in over a year. They don’t do anything,” he continued.
Mic Ramos, a 53-year-old employee at Kings Gift Shop, agreed, saying “Kingsbridge Avenue is the worst it’s been in 28 years. Jerome Avenue, too. It’s stopping people from coming here to shop.”
Brooklyn had the most complaints of any borough with 11,413, followed by Manhattan (7,759), Queens (6,568), the Bronx (4,624) and Staten Island (1,425).
The 11220 in Brooklyn — which covers parts of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Borough Park — was the second filthiest of ZIP codes with 790 complaints, followed by the 10011 in Manhattan, which covers most of Chelsea and Greenwich Village and had 522 complaints.
Jeremey Laufer, district manager of Brooklyn Community Board 7, which includes the 11220, said some of the neighborhoods are magnets for illegal dumpers.
“Within that particular zip code, we have the Gowanus Expressway, which, underneath has always been a place where people dump garbage … We have a large industrial area. These are not necessarily well-lit, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week communities, and unfortunately, folks take advantage of that,” he said.
Laufer said the issue of dirty streets comes up “quite a bit” at his community board meetings.
The ZIP code with the most complaints in Queens is 11385, which covers Glendale and Ridgewood.
It received 481.
On Staten Island, the biggest call generator was the 10312 area of Annadale, Eltingville and Huguenot, with 316 complaints.
“I think complaints are up because people are actually seeing [the city’s] clean teams out there,” said Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, a Republican representing the South Shore of Staten Island.
“If someone calls my office with a dirty location, there will be a person there cleaning within a few days.”
Sanitation Department spokesman Joshua Goodman said the city has handed out 64% more summonses for cleanliness violations this year compared to 2022 and has also increased cleaning of city-owned properties under Mayor Adams.
He also said a spike in complaints does not necessarily correlate to an increase of trash citywide.
“DSNY has been proactive in public communications to encourage residents to file a service request with 311 when they see trash,” he said.
“People are calling because they know that under this mayor, they might actually see results.”
The city Sanitation Department recently dumped a longtime measuring system used to determine whether streets and sidewalks are clean, and called the 1970s-era “scorecard street cleanliness program” outdated” in the most recent Mayor’s Management report.
