Bergen Beach residents suspect that the Democratic Party is behind the removal of scores of lawn signs promoting their political rival, New York Congressman and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Lee Zeldin. Though it has yet to be confirmed, some members of the community believe a local elected official made the actual call to the Department of Sanitation, instructing the agency to pull the signs out of the ground and take them away in what some have described as a desperate, last-ditch effort to win an extremely contentious election.
Members of the community felt blindsided when they first noticed the signs disappearing throughout the neighborhood and began making inquiries. When they actually witnessed and recorded Sanitation agents removing dozens of signs at a time, and traced their vehicles back to the Manhattan garage they dispatched from, they were finally able to connect the dots. They decided to band together, collect the last remaining signs and distribute them to neighbors interested in displaying them on their front lawns. The trouble was that they did not have enough signs to go around.
Word of the removal had traveled fast and had lit a fire under many people, the majority of whom had been apathetic about the election prior to the incident, creating a strangely ironic increase in demand for Lee Zeldin lawn signs!