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NY Times
Central Brooklyn
Come Sundown, a Curbside Dilemma
By JAKE MOONEY
Published: November 5, 2006

The area of Brooklyn east of Midwood is sometimes known as Fraser,
after a heroic 1930s police officer. It is home to a lot of big
semidetached houses, and in recent years those houses have been
filling up with large Orthodox Jewish families.

Even small children can produce large amounts of garbage, and for some
of Fraser's Orthodox families, getting that garbage carted away has
become a weekly annoyance.

The city collects the area's trash on Wednesday and Saturday mornings,
and the Saturday collection day presents a problem. On that day, the
Jewish Sabbath, observant Jews refrain from activities like carrying
items on and off their property, and that prohibition includes moving
trash cans to and from the curb. As a result, Orthodox families there
must put their trash cans out before sundown on Friday, and they
cannot retrieve them until Saturday night.

The city, however, has its own rules, and some residents have
complained of receiving summonses for putting out their garbage too
early. The problem, which was reported in The Kings Courier, a local
newspaper, is likely to worsen soon; in December, the Sabbath can
start shortly after 4 p.m. on Friday.

According to State Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, who represents the
area, the Department of Sanitation assured her a year ago that
residents of Fraser would not get tickets as long as they waited until
4 p.m. Friday to put out their garbage. But the temptation to take out
the trash earlier is strong, said Raphael Treitel, an Orthodox Jew who
lives on Avenue M with his wife and five children.

"People don't want to be walking around in their Sabbath clothing
schlepping garbage cans," he said.

Most complaints, though, center on the empty cans that spend all day
Saturday at the curb. In the winter, Ms. Weinstein said, "the cans are
sitting there in the snow, maybe covered with snow, being blown
around, becoming a hazard to people in the street."

Mr. Treitel is one of the fortunate ones. "I happen to have the luck
of a next-door neighbor who's not Jewish, and he's a nice guy," he
said. The neighbor sometimes brings in both families' cans. But it is
an imperfect solution. "Eighty families on a block, you're going to
have the two gentiles running around cleaning up?" Mr. Treitel said.
"Not everybody is that nice."

Matthew LiPani, a Sanitation Department spokesman, said that his
agency was sensitive to the community's needs and that summonses were
issued only when trash cans had not been retrieved by Monday morning.
But he added: "Changing the day of collection is not an option. That
would involve changing the whole district and could upset schedules in
other areas."

Still, Mr. Treitel said: "For us, it's not a matter of personal
inconvenience. It's a matter of religious necessity, which is a little
bit different."