Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at the start of a pilot program to put trash in bins. It’s part of an effort to rid New York City sidewalks of a notorious scene: rat-infested mounds of smelly, black garbage bags.
City officials are calling it a “trash revolution.”
A pilot program in the West Harlem neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights is providing residents with large, blocky, lock-tight garbage containers in an attempt to rid the sidewalks of messy, oozing garbage bags.
The plan calls for residential buildings with 31 units or more to use oversize bins that can hold 800 gallons of trash, and for buildings with fewer than 10 units to use smaller “wheelie bins.” Buildings with 10 to 30 units can choose between the two options. Food waste must be placed in designated brown bins or other sealed containers, in line with the city’s new composting rules, while recycling, which attracts fewer rats, can still go in clear bags.
One casualty of the container pilot is parking. One bin is the size of about half a car and takes the place of roughly 28 garbage bags, according to a spokesman for the Sanitation Department. The rows of oversize bins — some 1,000 of them in the pilot program — have taken up hundreds of parking spots. Double-parking in front of the bins can cause problems, too, since 16 new side-loading garbage trucks are supposed to scoot up to them three times a week to empty their contents.
Expanding the program citywide would require the removal of more than 50,000 parking spots, city officials said. There is also the expense: Buying enough bins and trucks could cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade.
The finances and logistics of an expansion will fall on whoever wins the mayor’s race in November. But the current “revolution,” including the appointment of a rat czar, has been the singular vision of Mayor Eric Adams, my colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes.
Whether Mr. Adams, who has record-low approval ratings, will be able to continue his quest to clean up the city in a second term remains unclear. But other mayoral candidates, like former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is leading in the polls, support the push to put trash in containers.
“Look, rats are bad,” Mr. Cuomo said. “You have to secure the trash to control the rats. There’s not a lot of rocket science here.”
Other contenders, like Brad Lander, the city comptroller, and Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, think the program should go even further.
Making changes to waste collection is not only expensive; it also comes with a learning curve for residents. In April, the city rolled out a mandatory composting program for buildings of all sizes across the five boroughs, fining property owners for not separating food and yard waste from regular trash. But within weeks, the city announced exceptions. For the rest of the year, it is requiring only buildings with 30 units or more to pay fees for noncompliance.
“Make no mistake: Composting continues to be mandatory in New York City,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time. But because New Yorkers raised questions about the program, the statement said, the city will take more time to “conduct additional outreach and education on composting before issuing fines to the most persistent offenders who repeatedly refuse to compost.”
Weather
Expect a sunny day with a high near 80 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low near 61.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended until Wednesday (Shavuot). (Thanks to the reader who pointed out that, in yesterday’s newsletter, we mistakenly said that alternate-side parking rules were in effect.)
The latest Metro news
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Tracking eels in the Hudson: Millions of baby eels make their way each year from the Atlantic Ocean into rivers, streams and lakes on the East Coast. Every spring, around 1,000 volunteers, including many middle schoolers, wade into the Hudson River to help count the tiny, transparent eels.
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Jurors to weigh in on Weinstein retrial: After a six-week trial, the defense and prosecution in Harvey Weinstein’s New York sexual assault case plan to rest this week. The state’s highest court ordered a new trial last year after Weinstein’s highly publicized 2020 conviction was overturned.
New Jersey governor’s race
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Early voting opens for primaries: Voters can begin to cast their ballots in person on Tuesday in the state’s primary elections. Here’s what to know.
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National politics in Republican primary: In a state where an opinion poll showed that equal shares of residents supported and opposed President Trump, national politics have played a key role in the Republican primary for governor. The front-runner, Jack Ciattarelli, received Mr. Trump’s endorsement.
METROPOLITAN diary
Rainy Wednesday night
Dear Diary:
It was a rainy Wednesday night when a friend and I got into a Lyft going from a bar in Murray Hill to her place on the Upper West Side.
Looking out the window, I saw an S.U.V. making a right turn into our lane.
“He’s going to hit us,” I said calmly.
I was right. Within seconds, we were being sideswiped. Luckily no one was hurt.
Our driver pulled over and got out, as did the S.U.V.’s driver. Rain continued to pour down.
My friend and I sat in silence for a minute listening to the windshield wipers swish back and forth. I leaned up into the front seat and turned the car’s hazard lights on, while we waited and cars whizzed past us.
We watched the interaction between the two drivers, which appeared to be civil.
Our driver soon got back into the car and assured us that everything was OK.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Here,” I replied.
“I figured,” he said.
— Mary Martin
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. We’ll see you tomorrow. — H.H.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Luke Caramanico, Hannah Fidelman and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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Hilary Howard is a Times reporter covering how the New York City region is adapting to climate change and other environmental challenges.
The post Trash Containerization Comes to Harlem appeared first on New York Times.
