NYC Sanitation Chief Meets On AM Trash Collection

A solution will be found to the longtime problem of morning garbage collection during the time hundreds of school buses rule Boro Park’s streets, promised the head of New York City’s sanitation department.

Commissioner Kathryn Garcia met separately with two lawmakers representing Boro Park. She appeared to be agreeable to a partial way out, such as by selecting certain “through streets” where no garbage trucks will go in the morning rush hour, said City Councilman David Greenfield who met her last week Monday together with Community Board 12 officials.

“The morning congestion in Boro Park is even worse than rush hour in Manhattan,” Greenfield said in a statement to Hamodia. “It would be a huge victory for the community for the sanitation department to agree to change their pick-ups even on a few streets.”

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who met Garcia on Tuesday along with bus drivers from several yeshivos, noted in a release that the community was not asking for special treatment, just “an understanding of our culture.”

Hikind secured a promise from Mayor Bill de Blasio in October to come to an agreement on a demand to reschedule pickups between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. Garcia said that they are taking the request “very seriously,” but noted that existing union agreements do not allow for a blanket ban on working during certain hours.

She promised Greenfield that a deal would be ironed out in the early part of 2015.

This article appeared in print on page 18 of the December 31st, 2014 edition of Hamodia.