An open backyard on Henry Street has become an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for rats and other vermin, with piles of trash, discarded furniture, construction remnants, bottles, bags and broken glass overrunning the one-time manicured outdoor space.
Located behind Montague Street’s Andy’s Chinese restaurant, Dashing Diva nail salon and the Heights Vision Center, and across from Corcoran real estate on Henry, the cluttered dump is easily accessed through an open iron gate. For years, residents have been complaining to landlords and business owners, to no avail, as it continues to accumulate garbage strewn & stacked at liberty.
In the Brooklyn Paper this week, writer Kate Briquelet quotes Brooklyn Heights Assn. executive director Judy Stanton: “It’s third-world disgusting. Everyone walking by can see it from Henry Street. “It’s a dumping ground.”
Longtime neighbor Andrew Porter told the Paper that the shared courtyard is rampant with critters at night, and that passersby apparently regard the grounds as a public landfill. “A few days ago there was a sofa there,” Porter said. “I just wish someone would clean it up.”
Neighbors claim that calls to 311 and business managers have gotten no response, while queries by the Brooklyn Paper to the landlords of the three adjoining businesses—including major Coney Island developer Thor Equities, which owns the salon building— were ignored.
In the 1980s, the grounds housed a memorial garden and fountain honoring the former landlord’s son—until the family moved away. The fountain remains today… stacked with refuse.
Bobby Cruz, former owner of the UPS Store building on Montague Street, took it upon himself to bag some of the garbage earlier this month, in hopes of opening a tapas and wine bar beneath Heights Vision this spring. His intention is to turn part of the yard into outdoor seating for the business. He says he’ll continue to clean, with hopes that flowers will soon replace shards of glass.
