Jeffery Morris Strives to Keep Our Streets Clean

By Katie McFadden
If everyone did their part, Rockaway could be a beautiful place. For more than two years, Rockaway Beach resident Jeffery Morris has been leading by example, picking up garbage around the neighborhood out of the goodness of his heart, and he hopes others will follow.
Some may have noticed a man wearing gloves, regularly picking up garbage off of the streets and sidewalks around Rockaway Beach. Every Monday and Tuesday, since the spring of 2022, Jeffery Morris, a 64-year-old man who has been a resident of Rockaway Beach since 1977, has made it a point to help the Department of Sanitation out, by cleaning the blocks around the area. “I go to the warehouse between Rockaway Beach Blvd. and Rockaway Freeway on Beach 90th Street and they give me a broom and dustpan to clean up the sidewalks on Mondays and Tuesdays before the street sweepers come, and I’ve expanded to Beach 91st and 92nd and beyond.” He also makes it a point to clean up liquor bottles and other trash from the planters in front of businesses along Rockaway Beach Blvd. “I do that twice a week and throw the bottles in the litter basket. The poor flowerpots and the plants get so abused every day,” he said.
From Rockaway Beach Blvd. to Rockaway Freeway to Beach Channel Drive, Morris has been hitting the streets, picking up garbage. On May 17, he was spotted cleaning up around the BP gas station on Beach 100th and Beach Channel Drive, efforts that made it to local Facebook page, Friends of Rockaway Beach, with photos receiving more than 1,500 “Likes.” While Morris says he’s been cleaning regularly for about two years, neighbors responded saying they’ve seen him picking up trash for decades.
In addition to cleaning up the neighborhood, Morris says he even tries to give warnings to people to move their cars off of the streets on those alternate side days when the street sweeper will be coming through. “I always tell people in a nice way, Mr., Mrs. or Miss, you have to move your car because you don’t want to get a $65 ticket. With the way everything is going up, $65 really burns,” he said.
However, Morris has his limits when it comes good deeds. There’s one thing he won’t pick up. “I won’t clean up after someone’s pet,” he said. “People walking their dog should have a bag with them and clean up after their pet.”
After all, picking up trash is not something Morris gets paid to do. So why does he do it? “Out of the goodness of my heart,” Morris said. Taking the words of Mayor Eric Adams to heart, Morris is on a mission to make the city cleaner. “Mayor Adams wants cleaner streets just like I do. It’s bad enough trying to get rid of the rats,” he said. He also has great admiration for DSNY. “I wanted to be part of Sanitation. Since I was 8 years old, I wanted to be a garbageman,” he said, as he shared photos on his phone of his favorite sanitation vehicles, especially the street sweeper. Unfortunately, for Morris, who is on the autism spectrum, it wasn’t in the cards. “I took the test, and they never sent my results. They only sent me a letter saying I failed. I tried so many times, since I was 23 years old,” Morris shared.
However, Morris says he’s friends with many of the sanitation workers at Q14 in Rockaway and M4 in Manhattan. “I would say I get along with 80% of the sanitation workers there. A lot of them have retired but I have other friends that are still there,” he said. Local sanitation workers know Morris well and have even given him DSNY t-shirts and hats. After all, while he didn’t make it on to the truck, Morris still gets paid by DSNY, doing snow removal in the winters over the last few years. There hasn’t been much snow in the past few winters, but DSNY has sometimes found other tasks for Morris. During the light snow on Valentine’s Day this year, he reported to Q14 for snow removal duty. With minimal snow to be removed, Morris says they had him help out by cleaning up the Q14 garage. “I got paid for that,” he said.
While he didn’t become a sanman, Morris did work a long career working in the mailroom for BlueCross BlueShield in Murray Hill, where his mother, now 87, also worked. “I worked there for 27 years, and I was laid off 12 years ago in 2012,” he said. Since then, Morris has worked a few temp jobs at places like a short-lived gig at a men’s shelter in Kips Bay in Manhattan. But over the last few years, he’s found himself with extra free time. “When I started doing this in 2022, I wanted to do something useful for myself, rather than just sitting in the house watching television. I wanted to make myself useful, doing something creative and positive,” he said.
Morris hopes others follow his example. “If everyone was like me, this world would be a beautiful place to live,” he said. But at the very least, if not after others, Morris hopes people do pick up after themselves. “I want people to take care of themselves. You only live once. Take care of yourself and your community. Throw all of your garbage where it belongs in the litter basket. Even if you have to carry it 50 feet, dump it in the litter basket and not on the sidewalk or beach. Pick up after your pets. It looks disgusting, especially when it rains or snows. There’s no excuse for not cleaning up after yourself or your dog. And move your cars for alternate side. I don’t want people to get a ticket,” Morris said, before picking up a piece of cardboard near the boardwalk and placing it in the trash.