Only In New York

June of 2006. Broadway, near Prince St.

This is one of those things that continually amazes me—how people will go out of their way to put their trash in the wrong place. Surely it would have been easier for any of the 30 or so people who used this stuffed lamp post as a garbage can to walk to the nearest corner and drop it in its proper receptacle (perhaps a 2 on the difficulty scale of garbage disposal). But instead they chose this lamp post (i'd say an 8 on said scale) Steps needed to complete this option:

1. Bend down (no bending needed when tossing into a real garbage can)
2. Locate an empty space where they could place their rubbish (take a look, there is much there)
3. Shove garbage into its final resting place (ok, maybe not final but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon)
4. Ensure that none of the other items within were disturbed or fell out (notice there is no garbage on the sidewalk around the post)

This phenomena, of course, is not the lone blight of the lamp post—many other things serve as unintended trash receptacles in this city. Let's review:

1. Bicycle baskets (both front and back)
2. Ledges
3. Entry gates to brownstones
4. Full garbage bags (that people place other, loose garbage atop)
5. Free publication dispensers such as the Voice or L (I recently saw a bag of beans and potato chips in one)

Upon inspection I noticed it is mostly coffee cups in there. Maybe it's the caffeine that makes them do it.