Thank you for the good luck wishes everyone. This morning I went down to the New York City Department of Finance in Queens County. I waited an hour or so to appear before the Administrative Law Judge but had my case prepared, complete with photos of the local area, the rest of the block, the newspaper article with trash can pictures courtesy of Councilman Peter Vallone, as well as that awesome blog post that Betty3 found. I won't keep you in suspense but I have to wait 3-5 days for the decision to arrive in the mail.
The judge was very polite, professional and accommodating. She introduced herself and seemed very willing to give me an opportunity to speak, which was a good sign. The judge read the sanitation violation out loud. I had to clarify for her that the complaining officer wrote down "coffee cups" in addition to candy wrappers. I saw her roll her eyes and had a feeling that she was seeing utter rubbish (pardon the pun) appearing in front of her on a regular basis.
I began by informing the judge about Councilman Peter Vallone's article in the New York Daily News yesterday. I summarized how New York City issued a record low number of sanitation tickets for public trash cans from January through June 2013, allegedly as a result of Hurricane Sandy. She smiled when she saw the pictures that Councilman Vallone took and seemed to greatly appreciate the contrast with my predicament. I didn't mention the "trash backwards" zinger since I didn't want to denigrate the Sanitation Department as a whole, just make my point about an obvious numbers issue in July when this ticket was issued.
After this short background I tried to help the judge to reach the conclusion that we are certainly not guilty of this sanitation violation by pointing out that the complaint in the summons is far too vague. The house is on a block between two schools, despite being a residential neighborhood. There is never street parking available since someone always takes the available spot. The violation is for garbage in the street but it doesn't say where in the street the garbage was or whether a car was parked in the vicinity of the garbage, making it impossible to clean. Hence, as a result of a lack of detail, the summons itself is void for being too vague and leaving me unable to make a reasonable and adequate defense.
I showed her pictures of the block and that there are cars parked in front of every home. On the side and under each car I showed her the garbage that is unfortunate thrown out of the cars by nonresidents. There was diaper under the car in front of our house. I informed the judge (a) there aren't any children in the home at the moment (despite the fact that my parents hope for more grandchildren - that got a good laugh); (b) I have a Starbucks mug from which I drink coffee when I make it so the cups aren't mine; (c) I'm staying in the house and clean up and take care of what I can and I can't be there between 8 and 9AM to make sure that nobody threw garbage under their car that somehow we are supposed to clean up. I then mentioned that Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder changed the noon violation writing time to 6PM specifically to address the point that people were obviously not present to clean -- just as one cannot be present to clean at 8:10AM if they are in transit to work for a prompt 9AM start.
And in conclusion, I did receive a good laugh when I informed the judge that even the City of New York appears to have been blatantly violating its own sanitation ordinances that it purportedly wants the people to uphold to the letter of the law. I printed out the trash pickup days in our neighborhood as Tuesday and Thursday from the New York City Department of Sanitation web site. I handed her the picture of the small park 2 blocks away and how the City puts its trash on the curb no less than 7-9 hours in advance of the time that the law allows for trash to be placed on the sidewalk.
We'll see what the decision is but I think my presentation made a very good impression on the judge and gave her everything she needed to dismiss this crock of a violation. I'll let you know how things went when I hear myself.
Thanks again for everyone who contributed to the cause -- my case would not have been as confidently presented without you!!! 
arty: :beer: