I’ve decided that this, from Susan Sontag, is my New Year’s resolution #1:

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead.”

City garbage trucks divide duty: NY Times

City resuming trash pick up: NY Daily News

Cathie Black’s first day of school: NY Post

Federal panel sides with Ozzie’s Barista: Brooklyn Paper

The most useless stories of 2010: McBrooklyn

Brian Williams Video on Times’ discover of Brooklyn: McBrooklyn

Why is it nearly always about Manhattan?: Room 8

Residential garbage pick up resumes to day and that’s a good thing because Park Slope IS garbageland. Bags and bags of holiday garbage are piling up. Curbs have become mountainous regions of plastic garbage bags.

It’s starting to smell.

Apartment buildings can barely contain the trash in designated receptacles. Small buildings like ours where we bring our own garbage down to the front yard are really out of control. Large contractor bags fill with filled smaller garbage bags.The recycling bins are overflowing

The City suspended garbage and recycling pick-up for a week because the Sanitation Department was too busy dealing with snow. As of today, garbage pick up is back on though recycling will not resume until a later date.

It is up to homeowners and landlords to remove the snow so that garbage trucks have access to curb garbage.

Today’s the day: the clean up continues.

About Xmas trees: On our block trees are standing in snow piles. It’s actually looks kind of cool.

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreeNYC will be recycling Christmas trees into wood chips. These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree. The MulchFest will take place on January 8 and 9. Parks will host 35 chipping sites and 35 additional drop-off locations: 70 sites in all!

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

You have never seen so many snow plows.

Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue is covered in snow plows. Sort of. I must have seen five of them. Last night I was out and 2nd Street between 7th and 6th Avenues was closed off to cars and there were snow plows and other snow equipment clearing the streets around PS 321.

This morning many streets were closed off while snow plows emptied snow into dump trucks.  Quite a site. It reminded me of the children’s book, Katie and the Big Snow.

The book, written by Virginia Lee Burton (who also wrote Mike Mulligan and HIs Steam Shovel) is about a woman named Katie who drives a big red tractor in the City of Geoppolis. She saves the day when an enormous snowstorm hits the city. With her big snow plow on, Katy helps the police chief, the doctor, the superintendent of the Water Department, the fire chief and others as she plows them to their destinations.

Like Katie during the big snow, the NYC Department of Sanitation  is really going to town clearing the Park Slope snow build up.

Bring that Christmas tree of yours to a designated city park to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings across the city! A proper ending for a nice Christmas tree!

Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreeNYC to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips. These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree.

Last year, close to 24,000 Christmas trees citywide were recycled. Let’s top that number. The park will smell so nice.

This year, MulchFest will take place on January 8 and 9, 2011. Parks will host 35 chipping sites and 35 additional drop-off locations: 70 sites in all!

Please remember to remove all lights and ornaments before bringing the tree to a MulchFest site. Biodegradable bags will be provided if you wish to take some free mulch home.

Mayor Bloomberg was in Brooklyn today.

Mayor Bloomberg walked through the deep snow in Brooklyn today.

Mayor Bloomberg walked through the deep snow in Marine Park, Brooklyn with Marty Markowitz by his side and delivered a Junior’s cheesecake to a retired teacher name Mary Lyons. The mayor also thanked local hero Ryan Merola, who shoveled Lion’s Marine Park sidewalk.

Meanwhile, questions abound as to why the snow removal took so long.

Was it because the Mayor delayed calling the storm a blizzard thus delaying emergency protocols?

Was it, as has been reported (or rumored), sabotage by Sanitation Workers as a protest against upcoming budget cuts and lay offs?

Was it the unique nature of this snowstorm?

As I said, questions abound.  The New York City Council will hold a hearing on the subject on January 10th.

Sheepshead Bites wants to hear your poetry about the Blizzard of 2010 and the trouble it brought.

This is the winter of Southern Brooklyn’s discontent!

Residents are still enraged about unplowed streets all over Southern Brooklyn, with reports hitting Sheepshead Bites that side streets and even some major avenues remain unplowed, despite the city’s promises to have it completed this morning.

Simply complaining no longer suffices for these residents; they’re taking an unexpectedly creative approach to expressing their anger: unplowed poetry. What started as a lark is now turning into a trend, as more and more readers write their own poems with one overarching theme: “Take a hike, Mike!”

We’d love it if you asked your readers to add their contributions in the comments. Thanks a lot!

The city said it would have the streets cleared by 7AM Thursday but, according to the Daily News, there are still streets in Brooklyn that haven’t been plowed

Snowed under in Prospect Heights: CasaCara

My bedroom wall color revealed: Casa Cara

Favorite photos of 2010: Limestone Adventures

Brooklyn Living: Swiss Miss

A decade in NYC parts 1-3: Reclaimed Home

The hidden corners of Versailles: Stylefilenyc

(words and music by my fave Frank Loesser)

Maybe it’s much too early in the game
Ah, but I thought I’d ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year’s
New Year’s Eve?

Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year’s Eve

Maybe I’m crazy to suppose
I’d ever be the one you chose
Out of a thousand invitations
You’d receive

Ah, but in case I stand one little chance
Here comes the jackpot question in advance
What are you doing New Year’s
New Year’s Eve?

Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year’s Eve

What are you doing New Year’s Eve?

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

From Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Credit is due to the Sanitation Department because a lot of plowing got done today. Now the problem is curbs and crossing the street. Some streets are better than others. Local businesses pitched in and shoveled the crossings near their stores (kudos to Met Food for shoveling their side of 2nd Street. Methodist Hospital and Barnes and Noble did a good job as well). But for the most part it is hellish to cross the street now with piles of snow on the corners and slushy, mushy crosswalks.

I just took a walk down 7th Avenue to Union Street and discovered that much of Park Slope is still not plowed. I also walked down 6th Avenue to Garfield. I was heartened to see that Third Street between 6th and 7th Avenue is plowed as are the main avenues. But the side streets: good for cross-country skiing until the elevated temperatures make everything too sloshy.

It’s already getting kind of slushy out there.

Yesterday community activist Raul Rothblatt created BrooklynSnowRemoval 2010 map where Brooklynites can report the status of snow removal on their blocks.