[Photo of NY1's Rocco Vertuccio yesterday on 10th Street by Steven]
Elected officials made good on their vow from this past summer to introduce state legislation to ban New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) trucks from parking overnight on city streets.
The legislation by Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick was introduced this past Friday more than 14 months after DSNY vehicles began parking nightly on 10th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Despite meetings and direct pleas from residents of 10th Street and local elected officials, the city has yet to take any action to relocate the fleet of garbage trucks. With the city's inaction, officials now are turning to state legislation to get something done.
"For far too long, the Department of Sanitation has used East 10th Street as its personal parking lot, forcing residents to endure rotten smells and extreme noise pollution," Hoylman said in a statement. "This legislation... will finally end this ridiculous practice. We must ban garbage trucks from parking overnight on residential streets so we can protect the quality of life in every corner of our city."
Said Glick: "This disruptive practice has negatively affected local residents and small businesses by taking up valuable parking space, adding to noise pollution, detracting from our community’s quality of life, and introducing vermin and foul odors in front of residences."
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera all chimed in with their support.
As I first reported on Sept. 18, 2018, the DSNY started using this section of 10th Street to park up to seven garbage trucks or other vehicles. The DSNY no longer has use of their garage on 30th Street, and their solution for the foreseeable future has been to relocate their fleet elsewhere, including overnight on residential blocks.
And why park here? The Theater for the New City complex at 155 First Ave. near 10th Street was previously used by DSNY for storage, and they still maintain space in the facility for crews.
City officials had promised to look into this parking practice, but nothing ever happened. In September 2018, shortly after the trucks arrived, Mayor de Blasio promised to "relieve the immediate pressure" on 10th Street. "Do we want garbage trucks parking on residential streets? Of course not," said de Blasio, as CBS 2 reported on Sept. 26, 2018. "What we’re trying to do every day is figure out the kind of facilities that will help avoid that in the future."
"In a city with a limited amount of space, DSNY uses all options at our disposal to care for our fleet. Street parking has been necessary to keep providing essential services to this area while we find a new garage space," Belinda Mager, a DSNY spokesperson, told the Post.
Residents remain cautiously optimistic for the trucks to move on.
"I am really hopeful that this legislation may finally get the garbage trucks off of our residential street in the East Village," 10th Street resident Michelle Lang told me. "It is unfortunate that the only way to get this done is through legislation at the state level, but the de Blasio administration has failed to do anything over the last year. Fingers crossed that this will do the trick!"
Previously on EV Grieve:
Questions and concerns as the sanitation department begins using 10th Street to park garbage trucks
More trash talk about those garbage trucks parked on 10th Street
Local elected officials continue to press city for alternatives to parking garbage trucks on 10th Street; muggings now a concern
A waste of space: 10th Street still waiting for the garbage trucks to move on
Garbage truck parking situation on 10th Street still stinks, residents say
Waste land: Local elected officials tell the city to move the garbage trucks from 10th Street
DSNY's statement is not accurate. The trucks do not provide services to the area; they are assigned to sanitation services above 14th street.
ReplyDeleteAny links to the actual verbage of the bill?
ReplyDeletePark them around City Hall.
ReplyDeleteagreed, City Hall, there is plenty of space after hours downtown. Benefit of security to prevent car bombings.
ReplyDeleteThey say overnight... so what about during the day ?
ReplyDeleteHave seen about 2 trucks during the day - depends.
And why just not put them in a garage - and the bigger question,
when the city knew their garage space lease would be coming
to a close - why wasn't anything done then.
Was the plan, who cares, we'll park on the street
in some neighborhood.
Why can't they park over by the FDR?
ReplyDeleteWait, Sanitation is a city agency, so why do they need to enact legislation as if they are a private entity? The Mayor just needs to tell them they can’t park on the streets! I bet this is a phony bill that will fine DSNY if they continue to park their trucks on the street. Sanitation will just pay the fines since there will be nowhere else to put the trucks for the next 5-10 years until they can build a new garage. And if DSNY just ignores the new law, what is the city going to do, tow away the garbage trucks or arrest them? It’s already illegal to speed, double park and go through red lights, but every type of city vehicle does so all the time, and no one is ever arrested or fined.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it... 2 more years of Death-of-the City de Blasio? 10th Street will just have to hold their collective breath until we get a new mayor... who hopefully will be a person who puts people over party.
ReplyDeleteA couple of weeks ago there was a private garbage truck, full of garbage, that had been booted on 6th St!
ReplyDeleteI run & ride a bike at all various times near the DSNY & FDNY parking down by the bridges and there seems enough space to park three more trucks there!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's some DEFCON level 5 pessimism.
ReplyDeleteEliminate the paid parking lots under the FDR drive. I understand that parking goes along with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness occasionally, and I visit that waterfront at least weekly so it wouldn't be best, but sanitation has to park somewhere.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe Mayor Bill should do something not pure pandering to his base (mostly big real estate and some city services hustlers) and force through city wide composting and recycling. He can't be under the illusion he's got a career in politics after the last couple of years ... can he? ...
i like the idea of towing away all the garbage trucks! Then it's the impound lot's problem, and they're right on the river, so the smell will dissipate!
ReplyDeleteSorry but union rules restrict where the garbage trucks are parked, since the garbage people have to be able to take showers so they smell nice and fresh when they go home to watch The Price Is Right on their 77 inch 4K TV while drinking imported beer and farting into the plush cushions on their comfy La-Z-Boy reclining sofas. The trucks can’t just go to any old garage either since their height and weight (and smell) requires special facilities, and anyway who wants to pay $500 a month to park their $100k Range Rover next to a smelly garbage truck? Not me, thats for sure!
ReplyDeleteThe trucks are here because a bunch of politically connected NIMBYs in an adjoining district didn’t want the trucks parked there. The exact same politicians who are now promising this bill as some kind of a quick easy fix are the same ones who helped kill the facility that would have housed these trucks! Wake up people, you have been played and you are being played like the suckers they think you are.
It doesn't take 14 months to pass a bill like this, and if Mayor Billucination simply told DSNY to move the trucks they would move the trucks tomorrow. The problem is that after spending many years and millions of dollars planning to build another sanitation garage which got killed due to local opposition, there is no plan to provide a long term solution. Every available site in Lower and Midtown Manhattan was considered and none was found or was rejected for various reasons. So don’t be surprised when the trucks show up outside your apartment next time, or perhaps they will take over a schoolyard or a public park. We need a bigger is island because this one is running out of room.
Assembly and Senate are state, not city. This is basically state elected officials saying that if the mayor isn't going to act, they will. Hoylman told the Post exactly that:
ReplyDelete"It’s an issue everyone has raised with City Hall and it’s past time they acted. It’s a shame that we have to introduce legislation to get City Hall’s attention on an issue at the local level"
@10:31PM I sat through hours of meetings on this issue with these same politicians. It was BOTH city and state politicians such as Brad Hoylman (and at least one Federal politico in Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney) who helped block the construction of the new Sanitation garage where these trucks would be housed. But you have to don’t believe me, here‘s what Town and Village reported in 2013:
ReplyDeletePols ask city to hold off on plans for Sanitation Garage; Town & Village
Dec 19, 2013
”Last week, East Side elected officials made a last ditch effort to the Bloomberg administration to see if the city would hold off on plans for the Brookdale Campus sanitation garage. Via letter, the politicians argued that while there is no plan in place for the parcels of property set aside for development on both sides of the intended garage site, the city has still been moving along in getting needed approvals to get the garage built.
The local politicians, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Council Member Dan Garodnick and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, reached out to the Department of Sanitation last Wednesday with a letter asking to “table this proposal until a comprehensive plan for the entire site, and more clarity regarding the many issues that have been raised, are provided.”
The problem started with Mayor Bloomberg who started the ball rolling with a land swap deal that resulted in the demolition of another sanitation garage on the Upper East Side and a resulting shortage of garage space for trucks that service our area. Then the construction of the new garage on 25th Street was blocked by a combination of city, state and federal politicians.
State Senator Brad Hoylman and others wrote a letter to DSNY in 2013 asking them to table the plan for the new Sanitation garage on 25th Street. The plan was killed by political pressure, but the land swap deal was already done, and DSNY is now stuck with a giant parcel of land on 25th Street which they do not have the political support to build on.
Now the State politicians like Hoylman are “stepping in” to solve a problem they helped create, and fooling people into believing they had nothing to do with the current situation. So thanks for proving my point.
Giovanni, I'm sure that you didn't mean to imply that sanitation workers were somehow unworthy of showers, televisions, beer, or sofas.
ReplyDeleteI will grant the rest of your thesis about the difficulty of finding an appropriate location for a new garage.
@1:10 PM. No, quite the contrary, I was noting how Sanitation workers can easily afford all the basic luxuries, and with overtime can make a six figure salary after just a few years on the job. It's back breaking work and they have to put up with injuries, rats, not to mention the smell, but I wish our teachers were paid that well.
ReplyDeleteThe location for the new garage was in fact found, on 25th Street, but due to community opposition it has not been utilized. Nobody wants the trucks that handle garbage housed in their own neighborhood, yet we are creating more waste than ever.
Another mess caused by Bloomberg, and unable to be resolved by anyone currently in elected office. Thanks for nothing, Bloomie - this is the gift that keeps on giving.
ReplyDelete