With the arrival of a new season, residents who live on 10th Street west of First Avenue are anticipating a long, hot summer with garbage trucks continuing to park on their block.
A resident from 240 E. 10th St. shared this from a recent warm weather day:
Due to the three enormous sanitation trucks parked directly in front of our building ... there were dozens of flies in my apartment. You could see them on and around the trucks and flying up to people’s apartments. I have a new-born daughter in the apartment and there were flies on her pacifier, flies in my apartment and flies in her room. This is unacceptable.
As first reported last Sept. 18, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is now 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.
Meanwhile, residents say they continue to have quality-of-life and safety concerns — as expressed in previous posts — over the row of trucks parked on this block.
Last September, 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. "What we’re trying to do every day is figure out the kind of facilities that will help avoid that in the future."
Nine months later residents here are still waiting.
"Making phone calls and writing letters doesn’t seem to be doing anything," resident Michelle Lang said. "While Mayor de Blasio promised to relieve the residents of 10th Street from this undue burden back in September, nothing has been done."
Apparently there isn't any quick solution to the parking situation. DSNY included in their capital plan funding to start designing Manhattan Garage 6 (now temporarily on Montgomery and Jefferson streets) in 2022 with an anticipated completion date in 2028.
Local Councilmember Carlina Rivera has advocated for City Council to call to move the sanitation vehicles from residential neighborhoods in its 2020 Preliminary Budget Response.
Here's part of a missive from City Council:
The Council calls upon the Administration to relocate DSNY operational vehicles that are currently parked in residential neighborhoods to new, centralized locations within their respective sanitation districts. By centrally locating personnel and vehicle fleet, specifically in areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn, DSNY would improve efficiencies and reduce safety/air quality risks to local residents and small businesses.
Updated 8 p.m.
I asked Avi Burn, an owner of Pinks, whose bar-restaurant looks out at the parked garbage trucks, for his thoughts.
"Obviously businesses and neighbors are quite worried as the trucks are still parked on the block and the summer is the most perilous time for us as the stench is magnified, consumer foot traffic is heavier (will avoid smelly truck lined blocks) and there is more potentially hazardous street behavior late at night."
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
