[Photo from yesterday by Vinny & O]
As I first reported on Sept. 18, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is now using part of 10th Street west of First Avenue to park garbage trucks.
The DSNY no longer has use of their garage at 606 W. 30th St., and are relocating their fleet elsewhere, including 10th Street and at Pier 36.
This move has sparked numerous complaints from residents and merchants alike who have called out the problems with the smell, noise and negative impact on business.
The story has since received a good deal of press coverage. Here are a few updates.
• Mayor de Blasio is promising action.
Here's CBS 2 from Wednesday night:
Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to “relieve the immediate pressure” on a residential street in the heart of the East Village that has become a parking lot for Department of Sanitation vehicles.
“Do we want garbage trucks parking on residential streets? Of course not,” said de Blasio. “What we’re trying to do every day is figure out the kind of facilities that will help avoid that in the future.”
• District 2 City Council member Carlina Rivera is not pleased.
Per Patch on Wednesday:
"[The Department of Sanitation] must immediately move their vehicles to locations that do not place an undue burden on our vulnerable constituents and mom-and-pop stores and should engage in a meaningful dialogue with these communities," wrote Councilwoman Carlina Rivera in a recent letter to the Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.
• This is what the DSNY has to say about the move to 10th Street and other East Side locations.
Per The Villager on Tuesday:
[T]he Sanitation Department says that this is the only option until another garage location is secured.
“In short, we’ve been working for years to find garage space, which is the only solution,” said Belinda Mager, the department’s spokesperson. “This is the option of last resort, and what’s needed to be able to provide essential services to the district.”
• This is getting ugly.
Per ABC 7 last night:
A feud over garbage trucks parking on a residential street in the East Village heated up Thursday after a New York City Sanitation Department employee was captured by a surveillance camera dumping trash out of his garbage truck into a planter on E 10th Street between First and Second Avenues outside Pinks...
• And that Post headline from Sunday:
Aside from 10th Street, garbage trucks are also being parked by P.S. 184 on Cherry Street on the Lower East Side. CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer told me that she's also receiving complaints from many parents there.
Rivera and CB3 officials will be meeting with DSNY officials early next week.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Questions and concerns as the sanitation department begins using 10th Street to park garbage trucks