Back in 2007, the early days of Second Ave. Sagas, I had the chance to write two stories about pigeons. In one, Transit had just lost a $6 million lawsuit filed by a plaintiff who had injured himself by slipping in pigeon droppings. In another, the authority had instituted a new plan along the Flushing line to make the elevated structure less hospitable to pigeons. Now, these flying creatures back in the news with vengeance.
According to one Queens representative, the MTA has been negligent in its attention toward pigeons. At the 74th St. station along Roosevelt Avenue, Transit has created a public health problem by allowing pigeon poop to build up. “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has neglected its legal responsibility to clean the pigeon poop,” Councilman Daniel Dromm said. “We have complained about it and they still haven’t come out to clean it. They promised they would [on] Monday, November 28, but they didn’t. This is a serious case of neglect and abuse of the Jackson Heights community. They have been a bad neighbor. One has to wonder why they continue to ignore Jackson Heights when it is one of the busiest stations in the whole transit system.”
For its part, MTA officials say the station is cleaned every other week, but pigeons are incorrigible. “We do clean it, but the pigeons come right back,” a spokesman told The Queens Courrier. This is one of the difficult situations that we don’t have a solution to. From what I’ve heard it is pretty awful. It is disgusting, but we do have a pigeon problem throughout the city and we try different things in different place. We will just have to keep trying until we find a solution.” Sounds lovely.
6 comments
To reduce pigeon problems all over, we must address a major contributor-people who feed them.
I suggest locking an eagle into the big green station house for a month (windows are big enough for pigeon, but the eagle is too big to get out.
Bring in the nightly Cat Brigade who will roam the stations and elevated structures. They actually can be easily trained to avoid oncoming trains.
After a little while, even stoopid pigeons figure out this is no place to be. Thank you Spanish sailors for spreading your filth worldwide.
Now, Pigeonicide set on the steel ledges would also work.
The big station house was full of pigeons from before the roof was built. The place is a pigeon coop. Literally. Nests and pigeon chicks.
Now look at spotless Jamaica LIRR station is. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vilseckxc/695830585/ Note the acres of almost invisible pigeon netting. If 74th broadway situation was on LIRR or MN, MTA execs would be forced to resign from MSM and politician outrage. Its just because the 7 line is filled with coloreds that the MTA doesn’t care.
I see a lot of stations that liberally use spikes and razor-wire type stuff on all ledges / nestable places… it seems to do a decent job of reducing overhead hazards (even if the pigeons just resort to the ground instead…).
Sure it’d cost a bit of money to install it all, but wouldn’t they save a bunch in reduced cleaning costs in the long run?
As someone who uses this station every day, the pigeon problem is very real. I hope they do something about it soon. Of course, money is always an issue…