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For some Coney Island residents, the frustration surrounding Brooklyn’s District 13 Sanitation Garage is not new. It has shaped daily life for more than 40 years, with neighbors saying odors, flies, truck noise, and scattered trash have made it difficult to enjoy their own homes.
One longtime resident told CBS New York that the smell, flies, and garbage carried by seagulls into nearby yards have made backyards nearly unusable. “You don’t want to be out there,” she said, describing the daily toll of living near an open-air sanitation facility just steps from residential properties.
The resident said her family was told when they bought their home in the 1980s that the garage would eventually move. Decades later, the facility remains, and repeated promises have given way to skepticism among neighbors who say they have heard relocation plans before.
Relocation Plans Keep Falling Apart
A previous proposal would have combined the Coney Island District 13 garage with the District 15 sanitation garage in Sheepshead Bay, creating one larger facility farther from residential blocks. Community leaders said the plan would have addressed long-standing complaints in Coney Island while also replacing the inadequate setup in Sheepshead Bay.
But that plan stalled. According to Brooklyn Community Board 13 District Manager Eddie Mark, the proposed site was later sold to a private developer after funding concerns and delays derailed the process. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated efforts to revive the project.
Theresa Scavo, chair of Brooklyn Community Board 15, has also pointed to the poor conditions at the Sheepshead Bay garage, which operates out of trailers along Knapp Street rather than a permanent facility. Community leaders argue that both districts need a long-term solution, not another temporary fix.
A Broader Infrastructure Problem
The frustration is not limited to neighborhood complaints. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso has previously urged the city to prioritize a new sanitation garage for Brooklyn Districts 13 and 15, saying the facilities are among the worst in the Department of Sanitation’s inventory.
In 2023 testimony before the City Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, Reynoso noted that District 13 was operating from a dilapidated building and parking trucks on a site intended for affordable housing development. District 15, he said, was using trailers in an area vulnerable to flooding.
Reynoso also pointed to a long-delayed proposal for a new garage near Coney Island Creek. City Council approved site selection in 2006, but implementation lagged for years, and National Grid later put the site on the private market. For local leaders, the missed opportunity has become another example of how sanitation infrastructure problems can persist when capital projects remain unfunded.
Residents Still Waiting for Relief
The Department of Sanitation has said it regularly reviews operational and capital needs and is opening new garages elsewhere in Staten Island and Brooklyn. The agency has also said it will continue evaluating potential upgrades.
For residents living beside the Coney Island facility, however, new garages in other neighborhoods do little to address the conditions they experience every day. Community leaders say the search for a new site must continue, whether through city-owned land or a property the city can acquire.
The issue reflects a larger challenge for New York City: sanitation garages are essential public infrastructure, but when they sit too close to homes and operate in outdated facilities, the burden falls heavily on nearby residents. In Coney Island, decades of delay have left neighbors asking not whether the garage should move, but when the city will finally deliver on a promise many say they have heard for most of their lives.