Mayor Zohran Mamdani is defending his sanitation workers who are a day behind on garbage collection as crews have been working 12-hour shifts since last week’s snow storm.<\/p>\n
The heavy snow and the deep freeze have wreaked havoc across New York City, and one problem that can’t be missed is the towering piles of trash bags, sitting for days in some parts of the city.<\/p>\n
Banks of dirty snow coupled with piles of trash are like a post-snow storm hangover that’s lingering thanks to the unending cold temperatures.<\/p>\n
Snow melters are helping, but those frozen mounds of snow and ice are challenging.<\/p>\n
“It was like dealing with rock boulders that the workers were out there trying to chop up to try to open up the walkway,” said acting DSNY Commissioner Javier Lojan. “So that definitely slowed down some of the progress. And obviously that was a big priority for us.”<\/p>\n
And it has all had a domino effect of delaying some of the trash collection, according Lojan.<\/p>\n
“Even though we are on track on the Monday service areas, a lot of the people won’t start receiving service until tonight at 6 p.m. and that will go into the overnight and into tomorrow morning,” Lojan said.<\/p>\n
But the heaps of trash have prompted some outrage.<\/p>\n
Actor Michael Rapaport – who is no friend of Mayor Zohran Mamdani – complained about the trash on the Upper East Side. Council member Inna Vernikov also took aim at the mayor.<\/p>\n
The mayor says they’re working on it.<\/p>\n
“Sanitation is currently running about 24 hours behind on trash collection… I know that they are working with everything that they have to come up to speed, and that will continue to be a focus for us, because what we want is a city where New Yorkers can continue to return back to their lives as they were,” Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
And Eyewitness News found some New Yorkers who were willing to cut the city some slack.<\/p>\n
“It is freezing out, give them a little grace, maybe prioritize it at some point,” one New Yorker said.<\/p>\n
The Sanitation Department offered an update on Monday, saying snow operations are ongoing.<\/p>\n
“Trash IS getting collected. Snow IS getting moved and melted,” the department said in a statement. “We are still working round-the-clock – workers are working 24\/7 – on both collection AND snow removal. We’ve got hundreds of collection trucks on every shift, 12 hours at a time, and we plan to keep it going until we are totally caught up.”<\/p>\n
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