The snow is shrinking, but what it’s uncovering is hard to miss.
As temperatures climb into the 40s, melting piles are revealing weeks of trash pressed into the sidewalks.
What You Need To Know
Over the last several weeks, the Department of Sanitation said the city has melted 400 million pounds of snow across the city
According to the department, 2,500 sanitation workers on every successive 24-hour shift with no days off for about two weeks
With alternate side parking set to resume Thursday, vehicles will have to make way for street sweepers
“People seem to litter more on top of the snow,” Troy Hahn, an East Village resident, said.
Those mounds built up during January’s storm when sanitation crews were stretched thin, clearing streets before they could circle back for clean-up.
“The same sanitation workers who clear the snow are the people who pick up the trash,” Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Sanitation Joshua Goodman said.
Goodman called the response all-hands, one that puts plows first.
“We had 2,500 sanitation workers on every successive 24-hour shift. No days off for about two weeks,” he said.
Because it’s the same workforce doing both jobs, trash collection lagged. But Goodman said that the backlog is now gone, as sanitation supervisors are now refocusing on enforcement.
“Sanitation supervisors have written about 5,500 summonses for dirty conditions, dirty sidewalks, failure to clean 18 inches into the street this year,” he said.
With alternate side parking set to resume Thursday, vehicles will have to make way for street sweepers. They made appearances for the first time in weeks on Monday, clearing “No Parking” and “No Standing” zones.
Some quality-of-life violations, though, remain hard to police.
“There’s dog poop everywhere,” Stuy-Town resident Mary Jane Hanrahan said.
“In order to write a summons for failure to clean up after a dog, we have to catch somebody in the act, and obviously that’s very challenging,” Goodman said.
Still, the message from the city is blunt.
“This is one of those things where everybody knows it’s wrong. Nobody [knows] they don’t have to clean up after their dog. It’s completely unacceptable,” Goodman said.
And for residents navigating what’s left behind, progress matters.
“The city does its job for the most part. They keep the [streets] clean,” East Village resident Jessica Rico said.
Over the last several weeks, Goodman said the city has melted 400 million pounds of snow across the city.