He’s finally trimming New York’s 5-o’clock shadow.
Mayor Mamdani will announce later today that the Department of Sanitation will containerize all residential trash citywide by the end of 2031, putting to rest concerns that the new administration might fail to advance the previous administration’s pilot effort to get stinky garbage bags off the sidewalk and into containers in the curbside lane, Streetsblog has learned.
The mayor will make the announcement this evening at a rally marking his 100th day in office. Like his predecessor, the mayor will point out that the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation should not force pedestrians to skirt around leaking black garbage bags — the infamous 5-o’clock shadow — on New York’s too-narrow sidewalks, a source said. But he will also distance himself from former Mayor Eric Adams’s failure to fund full containerization beyond his successful demonstration of the concept in Harlem.
Mayor Mamdani journeyed to Harlem to see the success of his predecessor’s containerization pilot, championed by Council Member Shaun Abreu (left).
Adams indeed set no date for expansion of the so-called “Trash Revolution,” and allocated no funds to win the war on garbage. Mamdani’s five-year, citywide timeline will include at least one fully containerized community district per borough by the end of 2027, the source said.
Council Member Shaun Abreu (D-Harlem) hailed the mayor’s announcement.
“The groundwork we laid in West Harlem was always meant to be a model for the city, and that day is finally here,” said Abreu, who championed containerized trash when he was the chairman of the Council’s Sanitation Committee. “Our streets don’t have to be an eyesore. We can get trash off our sidewalks and reclaim our most visible public spaces for pedestrians, eateries, playgrounds, and more. With this announcement, Mayor Mamdani is making changes that will truly improve the experience of being in New York City.”
As exciting as the news is to pedestrian advocates, it comes years and even decades after most prosperous cities have devised ways to eliminate garbage bags and put trash in communal bins in the roadway. Streetsblog has been drawing attention to the issue repeatedly, and was on hand when then-Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the very beginnings of the current plan in 2023.
The city’s effort to remove garbage from the paths of pedestrians, and create more space for walkers, has been popular, despite some drivers’ concerns about “lost” parking spaces. The city has roughly three million parking spaces, and full trash containerization is expected to take about 150,000 spaces, or 5 percent.
Through Saturday, April 11 (though today’s announcement will likely add another day).
The mayor’s announcement later today will be part of a larger effort to highlight his first hundred days. In a press release, City Hall touted several promises that will be familiar to Streetsblog readers: Committing to finishing a stalled street safety project on McGuinness Boulevard, a bus lane on Fordham Road, a missing protected bike lane on Ashland Place, and bike lanes in Midwood and Flatbush; completing and extending the 31st Street bike lane; reviving a bus project on Madison Avenue; and implementing the redesign of the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian and cycling entrance in Manhattan.
The Mamdani administration has also begun its own initiatives, such as redesigning the already successful 14th Street corridor, improving the pedestrian experience on Ninth Avenue, implementing lower speed limits around schools, installing more red-light cameras (which Mayor Adams had halted), and ending criminal summonsing of cyclists.
The mayor’s address will be streamed here.
It’s worth noting that Streetsblog’s Mamdani-O-Meter has reached a record 39 days (through April 11) and has not been reset back to zero since close to 20 people died in the first winter blizzard.
In addition, Streetsblog has been tracking the Mamdani administration’s actions over the first 100 days. Readers can find it on our homepage or embedded below: