By Alex Robinson
Clutter on the property of a Main Street resident has gotten so bad and so obtrusive his neighbors were compelled to make formal complaints to community leaders.
The man who has owned the attached house at the corner of Main and 61st streets since February 2000 has piled belongings in front of his property and in his backyard to the point that the home is almost completely engulfed by the amassed storage.
“It’s so dirty. I don’t know what he’s trying to do. You can’t walk inside his house and it is getting worse and worse,” said neighbor Syed Qamarud Doja. “I asked him to clean it, but he said he could not help it. He’s making a junkyard.”
Community Board 7 forwarded the neighbors’ concerns to city agencies. The city Sanitation Department said it could not do anything about the situation since the storage in the man’s front yard is kept under tarps. The city Department of Buildings, however, said it would send inspectors to the house to look for potential violations.
The owner of the house was issued three DOB violations in 2002 for failure to maintain his property. According to the DOB website, one of the violations was for an “excessive amount of debris and household items along with car tires, toilet tank and other items stored on porch and wood storage closet in the driveway.”
Another was for having his front and back yard “filled up by various forms of auto parts cans, of gasoline bags, of debris, junk, cars and other stuff including combustible remedy.” His third violation was for having three unlicensed cars in his back yard and an unlicensed van in his front yard. The violation summaries said all three had been resolved.
The property owner did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him.
According to his neighbors, the inside of the man’s house is in a similar state, with belongings piled up to the ceiling. The owner, who works in the post office, takes things off the street and places them on his property, Doja said
Neighbors claimed that as well as being an eyesore, the man’s collection of junk poses a health hazard. Raccoons and rats inhabit the heap of stuff that is piled high in his backyard, the neighbor said..
“Many times I have asked him to do something. It’s very dangerous for children,” said Doja, who has three young grandchildren who come visit him and play on his property.
At press time, the man had not responded to repeated attempts to contact him.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
