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Keilim Mikvah May Be Closed Due to Trash

The Mikvah for Keilim adjacent to Crown Heights’ Sterling Electronics is under threat of closure after mounds of garbage left by patrons raised the ire of neighbors.

The Mikvah, which is for public use and free of charge, is located in the alleyway off Kingston Avenue between Crown and Montgomery Streets.

For the sake of the Mikvah’s continuity, the management of Sterling Electronics is appealing to members of the community to please remove their trash with them after they are done using it.

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39 Comments

  • Not the people fault

    dont blame the people, if you are going to build a mikvah for the community you need to make sure you can handle the crowds, the bins get filled within a hour after they are emptied and the rest goes on the floor.

    Any normal store or event or place of business when you open something you need to accommodate the crowds, otherwise dont do it or charge for it and have someone pick up the garbage.

    Dont be nice and then blame the people, its like saying ill offer free ice cream to the whole crown heights and when thousands come expect them all to keep the garbage in their pocket

    • duh

      i cant believe you have the chutzpah to write this….well actually i can. they are HELPING you do a mitzvah and they are NOT CHARGING you, so have the DECENCY (look that one up people) to throw away your disgusting garbage when you are done using SOMEONE ELSE’S PROPERTY.

    • My home, my rules

      The sign in the picture very clearly says “Please remove all garbage (garbage can is not for boxes)”. It seems clear that one of the stated conditions for using this private (yes, private) facility is that whatever you carry in you carry out. If you cannot abide then you cannot use. And now, thanks to far too many chutzpaniks who think use of this mikvah is some sort of entitlement, the entire community stands to lose out.

    • CHLEAKS.COM

      Comment #1 is the epitome of a selfish person who feels he/she is ‘Entitled’ to free stuff.

      Dear comment #1:There is a little something called ‘personal responsibility’ and another little something called “Hakaras Hatov” (gratitude).

      Unfortunately selfish people with your attitude can’t be educated or convinced, you and the likes of you (other leaches) must be defeated.

  • dont get it

    we spend millions in helping others in need if we close the mikvah people will be eating from dishes that were not toivelt, just as you make the mikvah as tzedakah so is the cleanup you are helping people eat kosher which is a huge mitzvah with a small price to pay

    • CHLEAKS.COM

      Just like you go out of your way to do a mitzva, you can go “out of your way” to clean your own garbage.

      Idiot!!!!!

  • Citizen Berel

    Looks like there’s more trash than trash cans so this service is half a service cause putting your trash somewhere is just something that you need to do and when you walk with a yom tov’s worth of new kelim to toivel and you carry all your boxes in the carriage and placing everything neatly back into the boxes isn’t feasible cause packing stuff like that takes tell talent let me tell you then you are going to have trash piled up. So yeah…trash piles near a kelim mikva -oh my G-d we are all slobs! And even worse it’s trash in the alley–in the alley!–which is a clean clean place what never has piles of trash and these neighbors, these lovely lovely neighbors what woke up after the decade (or two) of the mikva being there don’t like trash piles in the alley cause they love clean alleys like what they have in Wisconsin where they make cheese, so lol we are going to lose the keilim mikva and the neighbors will have a clean alley with no piles of trash.

    • #5 Berel - Whoever needs to use this Kelim Mikvah

      Should bring along a Garbage Bag to put their Garbage into.
      And take their Garbage with them to dispose of elsewhere.

  • wow!!!

    there is no reason people cant bring along a garbage bag and bag their own trash if theres no room in the trash can at the mikvah!! instead of appreciating the FREE service provided there are actually people complaining that they arent providing more free service???!!!

    as for helping people eat kosher, its sad that this should be the deciding factor if people will tovel their dishes or not. there are many communities that dont have this amenity and they still (gasp) tovel their dishes.

    • Citizen Berel

      Yes that is shame what on planet earth the kielim mikva will go away. NO! Nothing to see here at all. Decades of using the mikva and now one minor change that we need to bring a trash bag to carry away the trash from the alley and people are complaining. Posh. Ingrates.The alley will be clean!

  • 2 cents

    is that how it works in a soup kitchen, everyone needs to take their garbage with them? part of providing a charity is providing trash bins

  • Entitled

    Good grief people. Bring your own trash bags and throw everything away once you get home.

  • TO #1

    TAKE YOUR GARBAGE HOME AND THROW IT OUT YOURSELF, UNLESS ITS REALLY SMALL OR THERE’S ROOM LEFT IN THE BINS

    • Citizen Berel

      That is ok. There really still are better options than to bring your trash back from the mikva (lemme guess you have a car!)

      If that’s what it takes to use this wonderful service than Citizen Berel can do without it.

  • Shlomie

    We need to Boycott Sterling Electronics for making us do this Aveyrah of making a mess!! What were they thinking? Plus the sign outisde has no “Yechi”
    So thats even crazier!!

  • Whoever uses this Kelim Mikvah

    Should learn the Halachos of Chilul Hashem.

    When the Non Jewish Neighbors see Jewish People leaving their garbage on the floor of the alleyway. This causes a Chilul Hashem.

    • ummm

      and whoever goes to 770 should learn the same halochos and we should have no trash bags in 770 and nobody cleaning the floors because whoever goes to daven there should pick up their own trash

  • Anonymous

    It seems some don’t understand the dangers of trash in the alley way. All it takes is one careless cigarette smoker and everything will go up in flames in a minute. And mice and rats will have a field day. They use paper to builds nests.If that’s not enough for people to bag their trash(most of it is probably recyclable)I don’t know what is.

    • relax

      you sound like the ally ways in CH are so clean, take a walk, this is only boxes not food

  • I use the mikveh

    I often use this mikveh. It is just big enough to toivel Rosho v’Rubo (I am a small person). The alley is usually private enough to undress. But the water is so cold!

    • That is SICK

      Themikva is for KELIM not people!! EWWW! I imagine you are someone who never takes a bath or shower. EEEEWWW! I am re-washing all my dishes.

    • Ezra

      #25, it was almost certainly a joke. (Though it’s anyway a good idea to wash your dishes after toiveling them.)

  • thank you crownheights.info for posting

    As a neighbor (and user) of the mikvah, I would to respectively voice mine and many of my neighbors frustrations/complaints.
    1)
    As mentioned, whenever I use the mikvah I make sure to take all my packaging with me (perhaps because it effects me personally I am sensitive to it) with regards to sterling, I think they offer a very nice service by maintaining the mikvah etc and they shouldn’t be responsible for taking away the packaging/garbage. I would even venture to say and suggest to sterling that they remove all garbage receptacles and post signage informing mikvah users that they are responsible to remove all garbage etc otherwise they can be subject and more importantly subject sterling to sanitation fines etc.
    Stated differently, the FEE for using the mikvah should be taking YOUR garbage with you, I don’t think that is much to ask. One would never dream of hauling a bunch of kelim to mikvah Meir for example (where there is a fee) and leaving the trash there………
    And unlike a soup kitchen, the folks using the mikvah have the means to bring the keilim to the mikvah by car, on foot or with a push cart wagon let them also take their kelim back with the said packaging etc.
    2)
    People pulling into the ally to use the mikvah!!!
    This is extremely frustrating and frankly downright selfish and disgusting. For those of you that don’t know or may have not realized there are two blocks of houses that use this ally as a means to get in and out of their garage, sometimes for school pickups, doctor visits and many other time sensitive appointments .
    THIS IS A ONE WAY ALLY (IT IS BLOCKED ON ALBANY AVE) YOU ARE BLOCKING US IN!!!! OR KEEPING US OUT!!!!! THIS IS SO INCONSIDERATE OF YOU!!!! THIS ALLYWAY IS A PRIVATE EASMENT DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE USE OF THE HOMEOWNERS (ONE CAN DRIVE THRU OF COURSE BUT IN THIS PARTICULAR ALLY IT IS BLOCKED ON ALBANY) BUT TO PARK AND BLOCK OUR ONLY MEANS OF ACCSES!!!!!!!!!!
    YOU ARE DOING A GREAT MITZVAH OF TOIVELING KELIM (BEIN ADAM LMOKOM) BUT YOU ARE ALSO PERPETRATING A GREAT AVAIRAH (BEIN ADAM LCHAVAIRO) AND WE WON’T EVEN GET INTO THE GREAT CHILLUL HASHEM YOU ARE MAKING BY DOING THE SAME TO OUR NON JEWISH NEIGBORS.
    Please change your ways and let us all live in peace in the Rebbes Schuna “kan tzivah hashem es habrocho” with blessings of MOSHIACH NOW!!!

  • DISGUSTING!

    Clean up after yourselves, you aren’t animals, don’t behave like you are.

  • Umm....

    IS it those who use the Mikvah who leave the alley so messy? If it is, then maybe Sterling should either shut it down or start charging. Or maybe a few people could volunteer 30 minutes of their time occasionally to keep watch and encourage people not to leave junk in the alley. Or maybe there should be a notice in more than one language that insists that people take their junk elsewhere. Or maybe a few people could donate more bins for the garbage. Or, or, or….Anyway, surely action taken should not be too difficult. Just take action.

  • CHLEAKS.COM

    It’s apparent from the comments that we are dealing with two different classes of people:

    Class #1:
    a) The upstanding individual(s) who have had a good and proper Chinuch (education) and as a result are naturally a mensch.

    And who most likely….
    b) Go out of their way to help and assist others.
    c) work hard and don’t depend or only rely on hand outs.
    d) know what personal responsibly is.

    Class #2:
    a) No Chinuch from parents (you can’t teach a person to be a mensch in school) and as a result are slabs in every aspect.
    b) Entitlement attitude (“give me, give me”).
    c) A word I can’t write here because it won’t get published.
    d) Davven in the basement of 786 Eastern Parkway.

    I’m thankful that the people in my community (my circle) are from class #1.

  • outoftown

    For many years our community had one mikveh . It was always kept clean. Either a husband toiveled kelim when he went to shul or a woman took items when she used the the mikveh, or was an attendant or made arrangements to use it during off hours. At all times it was understood that the mikveh was to be kept clean. Items were prepared beforehand – labels removed, excess wrappings left home, etc. and trash removed after toiveling.

  • CH resident

    If you are not planning to take the keilim home in the original packaging, then remove them at home first and take your dishes in the bag you plan to use coming back. either way, do you leave your other garbage spread out on the floor in front of your own home ?

  • Close the mikvah

    While I admit it is nice to have a mikvah it is unfair that people block the alley. People parking off that alley are blocked multiple times EVERY DAY. This is a mitzvah ha Bo l’dei avairah and you might as well not toivel the kelim. You have no permission to park in this alley never ever even for a minute. Even if you think people can squeeze by. This has been going on for years and there is an endless supply of people who ignore the enormous no parking sign because they will just be a minute.

  • entitlement issues

    Too many people suffer from entitlement syndrome. Sterling electronics does not need to provide garbage receptacles. They are providing and maintaining a Mikvah. Anyone who is going to “purify” their dishes and can’t understand that it’s their responsibility to dispose of their cardboard trash properly is clearly missing the point. To deface someone’s property is genaivah – much bigger avaira than the mitzvah of toiveling dishes.

    • My home, my rules

      The sign on the wall above seems to make clear that trash is not to be left behind. That is an explicit condition on the use of this property.

      BTW, check a popular maps website (not naming it here) and go to the street view for Sterling’s. The mikvah in the alleyway is clearly visible and there is no trash strewn about. Responsibility for the mess above lies with a few individuals who recently began this anti-social behavior recently, it would seem.

  • Chaim

    Only non-meshichistim leave their garbage behind & only a non-meshichist would toivel in the mikvah. Post 24 is no joke, I’ve seen the guy!

    If the sign had yechi in it, none of this would have ever happened.