REPORT: 1 and a half hours spent with DSNY street sweeper on UWS

Summary: Cars didn't move making it harder to clean streets, drivers reversed wrong way down blocks honking, drivers assaulted and demeaned Sanitation workers. 

MCB7 did a ride-along (or more specifically ride behind) with a Sanitation Street Sweeper on December 5th from 9:30-11:00am between West 91^st - 84^th Streets between Riverside, West End Avenue and Broadway. 

We were alerted to the problem of alternate side street sweeping by residents and block associations concerned with:

• trash on street;

• trash & leaves on street (especially this time of year) that then clogs storm drains leading to flooding;

• honking and noise when street sweepers arrive;

• streets blocked to school busses, ambulances, and regular traffic; 

• cars idling for hours in front of buildings causing localized pollution.

We reached out to Glenn, our Manhattan07 DSNY Superintendent. Glenn is passionate about clean streets, his work for DSNY and the city of New York. Glenn is a fantastic public servant and just the kind of city employee we want working to make the UWS better. Drivers’ response to Glenn was cursing, vehicular assault, and demeaning statements. 

Here is what we saw:

1. All blocks had ¼  - ½ of the vehicle spots occupied and did not move to allow the street sweeper to clean.

   
   
   
   

2. Often people sat idling in vehicles, and ignored, cursed  or tried to hit DSNY workers when confronted
   

3. When cars did move, they slowly pulled into a double parking configuration and then attempted to either

   1. Back down the street parallel to the street sweeper

   2. Do a u-turn across opposing traffic in an intersection

4. Because cars blocked the street, the average speed of the street cleaner was below walking speed. Despite this, the sweeper did fill an entire load of trash and leaves!!

Full Video

There has been a proposal to add camera enforcement to DSNY trucks, which you can read about at the link below: https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/camera-sweepers-alternate-side-parking-nyc/ 

Manhattan Community Board 7 will be discussing proposed actions or methods of supporting our Sanitation workers ability to do their jobs at future committee meetings.