Highland Park resident Lorne McGhee claims this unsavory sight is not uncommon.
“It’s to the point where it’s just blatant disrespect,” McGhee said.
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The 20-year Highland Park resident says there’s often a dump behind a plaza on Woodward at Beresford and the large loads of trash are not just an eye-sore, but a haven for rodents.
“You won’t even clean-up the dumpster, but you will accept our dollars to patronize your business, but you won’t even clean-up,” McGhee continued.
“I mean it’s unfair to drive-by here and see rats eating pizza dough.”
Wednesday, CW50 found the dumpster in question all cleaned up following social media backlash, but neighbors and city officials fear the rubbish will be back in no time.
“This serves as notice to the building management, that they need to do better than this,” said Highland Park Department of Public Works Director Willie Faison.
Faison told CW50’s Cryss Walker two businesses in the plaza were issued tickets.
“People want a clean city,” Faison said.
“If you operate a different way, in a different municipality, and it’s clean, you need to operate the same way here in the city of Highland Park,” Faison explained.
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Business owners at the plaza say the problem is there’s only one dumpster serving four high-volume businesses; and they say the pileups will continue until each business is assigned individual dumpsters.
Little Caesars and Manhattan Fish and Chicken Market were fined $150 for disposal of garbage violations, according to Faison.
Ahmed Beraghith is the owner of Manhattan Fish and Chicken Market.
He says he’s just as frustrated as the residents, but the problem is out of his hands.
“It’s the owner of the plaza’s responsibility,” Beraghith said.
“It’s in the lease agreement that he should provide us with a garbage dumpster and as you see, one is not enough.”
According to city records, the building is owned by Plaza on Woodward LLC.
If the problem continues, the owner will be hit with a $2,500 fine and misdemeanor charges.
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We’ve reached out to the owner for comment, but we’re still waiting to hear back.