Once upon a time, neighbors of the construction site we used to call the Roebling Oil Field were worried about the pools of oil that bubbled to the surface as the property was dug up. Then, the oil was cleaned up and the Roebling Oil Building rose (very quickly) on the site. It’s now known as Warehouse 11 and construction work is still going on on the building. This, however, has presented new problems for neighbors, who now say the building is trashing N. 11th Street and that workers are “nasty” and that the site is a Poster Child for why the city should hold developers and builders responsible for violating the quality of life in a neighborhood. Here is an email we received yesterday afternoon from a very angry resident:

On my way home today, walking in front of Warehouse 11(n 11th street), I couldn’t help but notice the state of the street. The workers in the building have trashed the street with litter which you could describe as a third world street dump. The trash has flown across the streets into trees, gutters, running water with now clogged drains and no one seems to care. There are bits of vaccum tubing, empty plastic bottles and cardboard parts everywhere you look There are thousands of bits of styrofoam.

Who are these people? It’s total disrespect for the locals who have to live on these streets. And we talk about global warming and the price of fuel but can’t even get the basics right? Why can’t the city come down on these developers for keeping their sites clean. Oh god forbid they should clean up a street that doesn’t belong to them? On top of the dump truck drivers who drive the wrong way down the one way street and nearly hit pedestrians (that I won’t go into) and the yelling from the top floor…

Now I understand that workers are going to create mess but they have been considerably getting worse since they started. I remember a few months ago when I found hundreds of styrofoam pieces in our window ledges when they decided to “shave” the side of the building. They were flying through the
air like snow and landing in flower pots and back gardens. Cannot be good for the environment. But they have continually left plastic bottles and and cardboard and random things like hats and gloves. Everything ends up on our side of the street and it never gets swept or picked up. I am sure all building sites are similar which is my point that someone has to give them a slap on the hand. Do they know what a trash bag is? They have a garbage truck come once a week for all their indoor trash.
Bucket loads. A lot of it ends up flying around.

More pics of the mess, below.