Day 1145

The odd little building at right, a cylinder with a rotting conical roof (closer look), stands alone on a half-acre of vacant, treed land in the midst of an otherwise pretty heavily developed neighborhood (aerial view). According to city records, the largest three of the four lots that constitute the vacant land have been owned for more than three decades by the same people — Beverly Dietrich and Andrew Lundy — who own the brick house at far left and the funky hexagonal shack (closer look) that stands behind it. (They own the house next door to that one as well. Compare the yards of those two houses to those of their neighbors.) It all makes for a somewhat perplexing sight, accented by a garbage bin stationed on the sidewalk outside the vacant lots, filled with what appears to be mostly household trash, accompanied by a sign that reads:

NYC SANITATION DEPARTMENT
DOES NOT PICK UP HERE

THE PROPERTY OWNER MUST
DISPOSE OF YOUR GARBAGE

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE
HOUSEHOLD TRASH HERE

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION