Photo by Rita.
By Alex Israel
Have you noticed an increase in trash on your block? Are your public trash cans routinely overflowing? Have they been removed altogether?
If you said yes, you are not alone, according to State Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, who conducted a “Sanitation Tour” with the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) earlier this year as a means of addressing complaints about trash from her constituents. Rosenthal represents New York’s 67th Assembly District, which includes parts of the Upper West Side and Hell’s Kitchen.
While the issue of trash isn’t necessarily number one on Rosenthal’s list—a representative from her office told West Side Rag that she has received hundreds of complaints about M104 bus service (which the Assemblymember addressed last March)—it’s definitely up there.
“We heard enough complaints to realize that we needed to schedule a walk-through,” said Rosenthal, who spoke with West Side Rag by phone. So in early February she released a survey, calling for residents within her district to share their problem locations and photos so that she might be able to address them specifically with representatives from DSNY.
And on February 15, they took to the streets. According to Rosenthal, constituent complaints informed the locations visited on the tour, which included several “glaring” hot spots: 84th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive, 80th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue, as well as various points between 71st and 75th Streets.
In attendance from DSNY were Paul Visconti, Chief of Cleaning Operations; Chi Dong, Deputy Chief; and Nicholas Circharo, Assistant Director.
I heard you loud and clear!
We’re about to kick off our #WestSideSanitationTour with @NYCSanitation!
📌First stop: West 80s, here we come. pic.twitter.com/p4XKBWCGKm
— Linda B. Rosenthal “the #OriginalRosenthal” (@LindaBRosenthal) February 15, 2019
The walk-through comes on the heels of DSNY’s decision to remove trash bins throughout the Upper West Side last April, which continues to concern locals despite DSNY’s promise of an “increase in cleanliness.” Following the negative public outcry last year, Rosenthal helped reinstate 6 new bins in April, and said that the walk-through highlighted a number of additional spots in need of restoration. (A DSNY spokesperson confirmed that two bins were reinstated following the walk-through.)
DSNY is responsible for removing bins based on their own analysis of the way they are being utilized. “It’s always been DSNY’s policy that litter baskets be used solely for pedestrian litter and not household garbage or business garbage,” the DSNY spokesperson told West Side Rag. “The Department’s cleaning office routinely reviews litter baskets usage and placement around the city, and will remove baskets that are in areas that do not meet the commercial criteria, or baskets that are chronically misused (i.e. illegal drop-offs, improper disposals of household trash in and around litter baskets, etc.).”
DSNY is also responsible for reinstating bins when they deem it necessary. “On the other hand, we will also add baskets to areas that have become more commercial in nature. Citywide, there are about 23,250 public street litter baskets across the five boroughs,” said the spokesperson, adding that the Upper West Side is currently home to more than 800 litter baskets, which are serviced and emptied daily.
“People need to understand the street garbage cans are not their personal garbage cans,” Rosenthal told West Side Rag, explaining DSNY’s justification for removals. “But I think it’s important that there be enough garbage cans to deal with the amount of garbage that’s produced.”
Overall, Rosenthal said she felt like the walk-through was “productive,” commending DSNY for calling in an overflowing dumpster on the spot. “They were very thorough,” she said. “Now we’re in constant communication with the department. This kind of partnership is a great thing—we all care about the state of our city.”
But not everyone is feeling the impact of this productivity. Members of Neighborhood In The Nineties, a community group that operates between Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Drive, and from 90th to 97th Streets (falling in part under New York’s 69th Assembly District, which is represented by Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell), are feeling disillusioned after reaching out to public officials regarding the removal of two corner cans at several intersections.
N90s claims the removals have resulted in “an unhygienic, unhealthy, overflowing mess,” according to their most recent newsletter. In an email to a constituent regarding their complaints, a DSNY Deputy Director suggested that people dispose of dog waste into their own toilets or home garbage bins.
The DSNY spokesperson clarified to West Side Rag that the Deputy Director’s suggestion was intended to provide “different options of removing canine waste,” but that ultimately it is legal to do so in public bins under the right circumstances. “Canine waste should be placed in a non-leaking sealed bag or container and can be deposited in a DSNY litter basket,” the spokesperson said, directing residents to DSNY’s website for more on the official policy.
Still, the Deputy Director’s correspondence did not go over well with N90s, who took the statement as “a veiled threat” to remove baskets based on DSNY’s approval of what’s in the trash.
“Sanitation has chosen not to engage the community,” said Aaron Biller, president of N90s, in the newsletter. “If Sanitation believes that people are not using litter baskets properly, they could have enlisted elected officials and the community board and educated the public through the media. Instead the baskets were removed with no warning.”
“With the arrival of warmer weather, we must not sit by. The policy of putting a litter can on every corner goes back a few decades. It was done to encourage people to pick up their dog’s poop, and not throw trash into the street,” said Biller, urging neighbors to share complaints with Barreto, as well as Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Helen Rosenthal.
Upper West Siders may have the opportunity to address these issues on the next installment of the West Side Sanitation Tour—Assemblymember Rosenthal is hoping to host another walk-through closer to summertime, when there’s “an abundance of trash.”
Until then, concerned residents can make a make a complaint about overflowing garbage to DSNY using this form.
Ah, life on the trendy, ever-a-building Upper West Side…more people, less sanitation.
“People need to understand the street garbage cans are not their personal garbage cans.”
Yes, the vast majority of us understand that. In fact it’s highly insulting a public elected official would make such a condescending comment to her constituents. However we are made to suffer because of a (very) few people who don’t care?
As we are all aware, corner sites that used to have baskets on WEA are still being used to dump trash/dog waste, only now it sits on the sidewalk instead of in the corner basket. Most of us ask for very little from the city, but now even clean sidewalks are being denied us.
In just a few short years, it seems as though people have become complete narcissistic slobs. Litter is everywhere you look. That’s the folks who don’t give a single eff, they seem to be the majority these days. But for those who do use corner waste receptacles, yes trash cans are all overflowing and not being picked up and emptied often enough. (Thank you tourism.) Especially after the weekend. Then this trash is blown all over. Is it time for an anti littering PR campaign like the seventies?
NYCHA is the worst offender when it comes to trash. They leave piles and piles of garbage on the sidewalks outside the Douglass House buildings for days on end. The rat population has exploded as a result.
It’s not the increase of trash it is the decrease of sanitation not picking the trash up. Have you also noticed how trees are not being replaced/ planted on the sidewalks???
This is all thanks to your mayor!!!!
It is unreasonable to remove garbage bins because some of the garbage is the wrong kind. Is it not better to have garbage of all kinds in a bin rather than having it strewn about because the bin has been removed?
Two recycling cans on the southwest corner of 86th and broadway disappeared at some point, don’t know when exactly but they are no longer there. Why not??
the UWS is filthy. the trash cans are ancient rusted and unsightly. why can’t we get larger NEWER TRASH CANS?
there’s just no excuse for how dirty this neighborhood is. You don’t like the contents in the trash bins? Who are you DSNY that you are so ignorant to think that removing the trash cans will end the trash. Sorry but that’s just plain dumb. trash is not the only reason why the UWS looks dirtier than other neighborhoods…40 -50 bicycles chained around trees on bway/70th street and filthy garbage filled newspaper boxes that linger on corners for years…please!
These don’t exist on the east side or in the Village. Can anyone help? Does anyone want to?
In regards to the bicycles change around trees, it is against the law to do this. You can call 311 and the sanitation department will come out the next day or two and remove those bikes. I have done it on my Block and they removed them the next day by sanitation.
I agree on this. I moved here 5 years ago and think over the years it has gotten much dirtier. Every time I am in Tribeca or downtown I am surprised how much cleaner it is.
They keep the fur in the car.
That’s because there’s no foot traffic in Tribeca like on the UPPER WEST SIDE… I bet if you go to Soho on the weekend you’ll see a similar condition like here.
I used to live on 72nd St.. Now I’m up on 148th and this is what we are dealing with re: the sanitation departments flawed policies. It’s counterintuitive. The fewer trash bins, the more trash on the street. AND why are they all open when they have cans that can keep the trash from blowing away in the wind. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/nyregion/harlem-litter-baskets-sanitation-department-nyc.html
One obvious problem is the bins themselves! The design is horrible. Our neighborhoods are more densely populated now as a result of development. More foot traffic means more people needing to dispose of trash. The capacity of street bins hasn’t changed, and the fact the they remain open means the wind will sweep trash into the streets and on to the sidewalks. This is a no brainer.
There was a re-design contest for sidewalk trash bins. Where are the results?
Overflowing since the removal of 2 of the 4 cans on WEA and 94th
West End Avenue north of 65th Street is residential and almost all apartment buildings. Apartment buildings have trash bins or chutes. Why would anyone be putting household trash or business trash in street cans? Who are these people and why isn’t there random surveillance to find out what is really happening?
Tourists don’t walk on WEA and if they are taking their trash out of Riverside Park and dumping it into WEA cans, does it really matter and if they are, why aren’t there more places to put trash in the Park.
I’m not a dog owner, but where, if not in sidewalk cans, would dog owners put the poop. You expect them to bring it back inside? That’s just crazy. I don’t want to ride the elevator with someone carrying dog feces.
Maybe we need special outside cans for dog poop–with openings too small to be of use for much else.
Now Sanitation doesn’t want dog owners to put poop bags in the corner baskets after one cleans up after their dog?
Yes! I was told they remived the cans because hose who have vacation homes bring trash back here & use the cans. It is an outrage. We need our trash cans. Send these decisionmakers back to the suburbs from whence they came!
Its just going to get worse with Cuomo’s brilliant plan to get rid of all plastic shopping bags and substitute them for paper at a cost of a nickel each or the soon to be decorative plastic bags with Cuomo’s photo that we be more useless than a paper bag when it rains. Without their free plastic bags, tenants are just going wrap up their dinner left overs and dump them in these street garbage cans or just leave it on sidewalks which will just multiply the rat population on the UWS. Cuomo, instead of trying to out do Ocasio-Cortez, it would be more helpful if you found a credible candidate to defeat her in next year’s primary.
Business store owners should be pitch-in on keeping their storefront area clean, after all people have to shop and making it a little presentable for your buyers and show some responsibility in keeping your sidewalk clean a few times a day.
I remember the 1960’s and 1970’s It was pretty bad.
Especially finding rats and the gutters in the middle of the day picking up food.
Whatever happened to the law called “No Littering” and the saying… “Pitch-in” “A Cleaner New York is up to you”.
This reduction in garbage cans was to avoid paying overtime to trash haulers and garbage men to empty can more frequently and later. Learned that at RAT Academy a free provided class for UWS residents. Need to reduce trash to reduce rat population. Disgusting that once again it’s all about saving money rather than addressing realistic needs of community.
You are correct! This never happened under the Bloomberg administration.
Shame on you Mayor Bill de Blasio!!!
We need a basket on n/e corner of 87th WEA where the bus stops so people can dispose of bus receipts and other stuff they are not taking home
Put it in your purse and take it home.
I wish that we had the bins like the have in Bryany Park—large and sturdy, sealed with smaller opening on top and separate one for trash and recycling…but that’s ways too much to ask. We don’t deserve nice functional things.
I agree with Lopez that the Cuomo plastic bag ban with the soon to be Cuomo Nickel Paper Bag Tax is going to make things worse for all. We will soon have paper bags being dropped on the sidewalk on rainy days or when they fall apart of being weighed down by food in glass rather than plastic due to Cuomo’s war on plastic. And if you think that Cuomo’s reusable bag plan will work, its worse than paper and plastic. I call on Albany to rescind the ban on plastic shopping bags immediately and keep them free of charge. Cuomo’s stupidity is going to make it worse for the environment but all he seems to understand is to implement Ocasio-Cortez’s 4th grade science project.
Removal of litter baskets? They used to be collected three times a day: once each shift. Have they been removed from Kathryn Garcia’s Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn? (She’s a friend of DeBlaz, who made her the Sanit Commish). Let’s go see!
Also, there used to be a couple of thousand more SanMen, and three workers on each collection truck.