NEW ORLEANS — We’ve been following an abandoned truck in the Carrollton area on Fern street that residents say have been there for over a month. Friday afternoon, WWLTV cameras were there when a sanitation truck arrived so workers could dump the trash out of the back of the abandoned vehicle.
The truck is parked just steps from Nahum Leventhal’s front door. He was smiling ear-to-ear as he watched sanitation workers pull up to his street.
“As you can see I’m smiling a lot I’m happy, I’m relieved, I’m kind of incredulous about it,” Leventhal said.
According to Leventhal, the truck has been there since mid-December. He and other residents say they’ve been contacting the city about it for weeks.
“I can tell you the people I spoke with were very sympathetic whether it’s councilmen or DPW they were all again sympathetic but okay let’s see some results,” Leventhal said.
He’s described the situation as more than frustrating.
“Annoying, distracting, dangerous. My house is blocked from the street and I don’t know who’s doing what and then as it started filling with garbage and we had the wind blowing as we do now, the storms, I had their trash on my street which is annoying to have to pick up,” Leventhal said.
As we were there, Leventhal received a text message from Department of Public Works residents telling him a tow truck would remove the vehicle Friday. He and other residents rejoiced but say they won’t be release a sigh of relief until they know it’s gone.
“If it’s not [towed today] I see that’s another target for dumping more garbage in it and this will just grow until it is removed,” Leventhal said.
On top of the abandoned truck, residents have also been living in a construction zone for years. A city project has torn the streets up, making it difficult for residents to even get to their front door.
Their frustration is shared with their City Council representative, Joe Giarrusso, who says residents shouldn’t have to jump through so many hoops to get issues resolved.
“Frustration number one is people shouldn’t’ have to contact the media to get quality of life issues taken care of, period full stop. Frustration number two is whenever an issue is reported to the city, the city needs to be on some sort of timeline for what’s going to happen to set expectation. So, if it’s going to be two weeks, two months, let people know where that stands,” Giarrusso said. “Number three this is clearly a quality-of-life issue. It’s not just hey there’s an abandoned car and I can’t park in front of my street, it’s a truck collecting debris and dirt and other unsanitary things. You’re creating a public health problem as well.”
Giarrusso says the 311 system needs to be better. He says he would like the city to have a public dashboard to track when the city is contacted about an issue and when the projects stand.