Bay Ridge Case Study

SMALL DISTRICTS: Taking this District ‘Beyond Litter’ to accomplish more!

Block by Block was hired by the Bay Ridge 5th Avenue BID on August 1, 2020 to provide supplemental environmental services within their annual sanitation budget of $229,822 to elevate the sanitary conditions and physical appearance of the heavily trafficked 5th Avenue district.

The Bay Ridge 5th Avenue BID is comprised of 40 block faces stretching from 65th to 85th Streets in Brooklyn, NY and has an annual assessment of $534,000.  The community mirrors much of NYC as a vibrant and culturally diverse residential and business district that is home to over 330 ground floor retail and restaurant establishments along 5th Avenue and over 70,000 residents in the surrounding neighborhood.

The previous vendor provided only trash services via broom and dustpan with no graffiti or weed removal, special project work such as power washing or painting of street furniture, leaving the district in need of significant restoration work on August 1st.

Block by Block’s approach to making an immediate and lasting impact was to add 208 “blitz” hours to the annual budget that would allow the Ambassadors to quickly bring the district up to a standard that could be maintained by the Team’s 160 weekly service hours.  The “blitz” hours included restoration work such as the power washing the 78 district trash cans, painting 192 street fixtures (streetlamp poles, hydrants, fireboxes and bus stops) weeding and deep cleaning the tree pits and removing graffiti and stickers from street furniture and storefronts.  Due to both storage space and budgetary constraints equipment for the program is limited to: rolling barrels, a special project cart with paint and graffiti removal supplies, battery operated blowers & weed trimmers and a power washing trike to clean trash cans/spills and stains, radios for communication and iPhones for data and photo collection in the SMART System.

The 90 day improvement to 5th Avenue was dramatic as noted by the before and after photos as well as the SMART System statistical measurements:

• 225 graffiti tags removed
• 520 bills & stickers removed
• 1557 trash cans cleaned
• 6211 trash bags used – representing over 217,577 lbs of trash removed from the district
• 192 street fixtures painted

	20/08	20/09	20/10	TOTAL
311 Requests	5	10	11	26
Bike Removal	1	1	2	4
Business Contact	48	87	87	222
Graffiti – Removed	50	12	163	225
Hospitality Assistance	146	137	114	397
Stickers Removed From Infrastructure	159	224	137	520
Storm Drains Cleaned	1233	869	604	2,706
Trash (# of bags)	2191	1992	2028	6,211
Trash Cans Cleaned	569	597	391	1,557
Tree Pit Cleaning	495	683	435	1,613
Weed Abatement (sites)	95	53	56	204

Bay Ridge 5th Avenue BID – By the Numbers

• 40 block faces/20 NYC blocks serviced = 1 mile
• 330 ground floor retail & restaurant establishments
• 78 district trash cans
• 13 NYC transit B63 bus stops

The Ambassador Program – By the Numbers

• 160 weekly service hours
• 208 blitz hours
• 4 FTEs
• 3 rolling barrels
• 1 power washing trike
• 1 projects cart
• 2 battery operated greenworks blowers
• 2 battery operated greenworks trimmers
• 3 radios
• 3 SMART Devices

The 90 Day Results – By the Numbers

• 225 Graffiti Tags Removed
• 520 Bills & Stickers Removed
• 1,557 Trash Cans Cleaned
• 6,211 Trash Bags Used – Representing over 217,577 lbs of trash removed from the district

Total District Infrastructure Painted 192

• 128 black light poles
• 22 green traffic control boxes
• 10 red fire boxes
• 15 yellow bus stop curb lines
• 10 black/gray hydrants and bollards
• 7 gray storefront roll down gates