By VIVIAN R. CARTER

Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), a not-for-profit support corporation of Montefiore Medical Center since 1981, wants the northwest Bronx to be healthy, safe and clean. It has garnered strong support from the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District and the merchants associations in three other local business corridors—Webster Avenue, East 204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue, and East 233rd Street and White Plains Road.

But perhaps their most influential supporter is Councilman Andrew Cohen, who, in collaboration with MPC, is now announcing the launch of an initiative to harness the passion and energy of local businesses and residents to the cause of cleaner streets and sidewalks in the 11th Council District. The Department of Sanitation of New York (DSNY) has an arsenal of special programs devoted to keeping New York neighborhoods tidy, so Cohen and MPC intend to deploy them, and Bronx businesses and individual residents can join in the partnership.

The easiest way to help is by volunteering for Adopt-a-Basket. Through a simple online form, any volunteer can help protect local health and quality of life by committing to adopt one of the city’s 25,000 litter baskets. The program is particularly critical in busy, densely populated and visited areas like the northwest Bronx business corridors, where litter baskets fill up faster than city sanitation teams can empty them. Residents and businesses have an interest in seeing that litter doesn’t spill onto sidewalks and streets, where it can attract vermin and insects, and generate unpleasant sights and smells.

Once the volunteer has completed an adoption form, DSNY provides a supply of plastic liners, a collection schedule – and a direct local contact for DSNY.  The volunteer monitors their litter basket on a daily basis. When the adopted litter basket is three-quarters full, the volunteer removes the partially filled plastic liner from the can, ties it securely, leaves it next to the basket for collection, then inserts a new liner into the basket.  Six merchants from the Webster Avenue corridor have already offered to adopt litter baskets.

There’s a bigger way that local businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and generous individuals can help reduce litter and improve conditions on the streets—by sponsoring the purchase of a deluxe, heavy-duty litter basket in an area. Sanitation teams will regularly empty these newly placed, pre-approved baskets that go a step beyond the city’s standard design.  Once purchased by an organization or individual, baskets will include a logo or name to highlight that sponsor’s commitment to maintaining the community’s quality of life. Anyone can both sponsor and adopt a basket, if desired.

To adopt and/or sponsor a litter basket or learn more about this initiative, contact Marcia Cameron of MPC, at (718) 324-4946, or email MCameron@montefiore.org.