NEW YORK — Beginning this Monday, November 14, New York City will begin cleaning up some of the 1,000 areas identified as in need of intensive cleaning such as part of the initiative Clean things up announced Thursday by Mayor Eric Adams.
“About 100 of these 1,000 areas will receive their first regularly scheduled cleanup and undergo maintenance on an ongoing basis, often for the first time in decades,” city sanitation spokesman Joshua Goodman said Sunday. “Areas like Allen Street Mall on the Lower East Side, 65th Street Extension at Sunset Park and next to the BQE in Astoria. This adds to the fact that this announcement covers the new trash service on bridges and along park perimeters.”
For this, the city will hire an additional 200 health workers who “will help get the job done,” the mayor said.
The new $14.5 million funding plan aims to create a cleaner city by upgrading cleaning protocols in all five boroughs. This money will be used this fiscal year alone to clean up more than 1,000 brownfield and filthy areas around the five boroughs.
It also seeks to increase trash can service, expand the application of surveillance cameras to combat the problem of illegal littering, and attract more rat exterminators. It’s about bringing faster, more reliable cleaning to every corner of the city.
“A large part of today’s initiative is the interagency collaboration that will result in cleaner streets, more jobs, fewer rodents and a better quality of life for our city’s 8.8 million residents. This $14.5 million investment will help build a cleaner, more welcoming city across all five boroughs and will target more than 1,000 long-neglected areas,” the mayor said on the day of the announcement.
According to the mayor’s office, “Get Stuff Clean” includes the following initiatives and new funding to keep New York City’s streets, parks and public spaces clean:
- 200 new DSNY workers will be added to support cleanup in all five boroughs.
- The City Parks Department will add new nightly shifts for hot spot cleaning and rat mitigation within the city parks, which consist of 240 stalls.
- $7.1 million for the Department of Sanitation, (DSNY), this fiscal year alone and more than $6.5 million annually thereafter to routinely clean approximately 1,500 areas of the city. The DSNY will also organize a new unit, the Targeted Neighborhoods Task Force (TNT), to conduct regular cleanups in these areas.
- $4.9 million for DSNY to implement Phase Two of the trash can service plan this year, and resources in future years, to service trash cans at bridge entrances and along city park perimeters.
- $470,000 this fiscal year and $1.1 million annually thereafter for a partnership of DSNY and DOT to perform regular on- and off-ramp cleanups.
- The Adams administration is stepping up its investments in landfill control, adding $1.4 million this fiscal year and nearly $400,000 annually thereafter to expand camera enforcement against the scourge of illegal dumping. Individuals involved in illegal littering will face $4,000 fines and vehicle seizures on a regular basis with these new cameras as part of an expansion of a highly successful and popular law enforcement strategy.
- $630,000 this fiscal year and nearly $1 million next year for DOHMH to expand rat mitigation efforts.
- DEP will expedite the hiring of an additional 50 employees to inspect and clean sewer grates, also known as drains. Clean, unobstructed, unobstructed sewer grates minimize flooding and improve the functionality of the sewer system.
