Something needs to give here

To the editor:

I am writing to express my dismay over what has been an increase in uncivilized behavior in Riverdale.

I began noticing an increase in littering during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with people discarding their masks onto the sidewalks. On Tyndall Avenue where I live, people park up the street and idle their car while eating lunch, then toss their trash out the window.

When I put my composting bin out for collection — something I wish more people would sign up for with the city’s sanitation department to help our environment — sometimes it remains there because someone has deposited their dog’s waste in a plastic bag into it.

Worst of all, in the mailbox at the corner of West 259th Street and Fieldston Avenue, someone has been gluing the inside of the slot so they can harvest other people’s mail.

These behaviors lead me to wish for surveillance cameras that would lead to fines. It seems people need deterrents who do not intrinsically show respect for their neighbors.

Or civic pride.

Debbi Dolan