Garbage Can on Greenpoint and 47th Avenue in Sunnyside (Photo: Queens Post)
Sept. 16, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The city will ramp up its sanitation efforts to keep streets trash-free after having cut the Department of Sanitation’s budget by $106 million.
Residents have been complaining of overflowing trash bins since the Sanitation budget took a hit and the department’s commissioner Kathryn Garcia even resigned over the cuts.
The city will reallocate a portion of the DSNY budget to support litter basket pickup on city streets, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. The funds will restore about 65 sanitation trucks tasked with basket collection across the city — a 24 percent increase from current levels.
The extra trucks will focus on 27 neighborhoods hard hit by COVID-19 as well as additional areas that have seen increased pedestrian traffic. In Queens, the neighborhoods that will get the extra service include Briarwood, Corona, Jamaica, Queensbridge and the Rockaways.
“New Yorkers deserve clean, safe communities and with this announcement today we are continuing to deliver on that promise,” de Blasio said.
City Hall didn’t specify where the funds were reallocated from.
Last week, DSNY Commissioner Garcia blasted cuts to basic trash collection services as she announced her resignation.
“At a time when protecting public health is of the essence, cutting basic Sanitation services is unconscionable,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
DSNY’s efforts will also be supported by other city-led initiatives.
The EDC will restart the “CleaNYC” initiative in partnership with the Doe Fund to provide supplemental cleaning services on streets and in parks through the end of the year. The Doe Fund provides employment, career training and social services to homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals.
The City will partner with community-based organizations, elected officials and the private sector to sponsor community cleanups and mobilize volunteers to collect litter on streets and in parks, as well.
“Our sanitation professionals have been heroes throughout this crisis,” de Blasio said. “They deserve all the support they can get in their fight to keep New York City clean.”
Featured Events
7 Comments
Maybe law enforcement can start helping with community clean ups instead of harassing and intimidating volunteers…?
De Blasio’s wife has a staff of 14 people, who collectively get paid $2 million. Where are the federal investigators?
I blame resident who throw household trash in city litter baskets. Also the business community needs to do more to get their customers to dispose of trash properly. Each place should have their own litter basket in front of their establishment and be responsible for maintaining it. More litter baskets is not the answer. The sanitation dept also does a terrible job of picking up loose trash from litter baskets. They are in such a hurry that half of it gets tossed on the floor. I live by one and its always a mess.
Apartment houses should put a garbage can out so their tenants can get rid of their dog waste.
“Each place should have their own litter basket in front of their establishment and be responsible for maintaining it. More litter baskets is not the answer.”
Sooooo, you want business to put out litter baskets, but mote litter baskets isn’t the answer….?
They aren’t allowed to put trash cans out.
Business would be responsible of maintaining them and not the city sanitation dept. Unless a city sweeper is responsible the city litter baskets create more of a mess.