[
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