Get a load of this
Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia is mulling a mayoral run — but she’ll have to overcome the city’s mounting trash woes first.
“Kathryn spoke to me some months ago and said it’s something she might consider,” Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday during a City Hall press briefing. “To the best of my knowledge, she hasn’t made a final decision.”
Politico originally reported on Garcia’s potential campaign.
De Blasio called Garcia “an outstanding commissioner” who’s “done great work.”
A source told The Post Garcia is considering joining the crowded mayoral field because she knows the nooks and crannies of the city’s budget and bureaucracy and can help get both back on track following the derailments caused by the coronavirus. Garcia believes she can sell liberals on the positive impact of municipal government by focusing on the nuts and bolts of delivering services, the source said.
But $100 million in coronavirus-induced cuts to her agency have led to piles of rotting garbage on city streets.
“With the trash we’re seeing all over, she’s got to get some of the blame because she sets the priorities in the budget,” Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) told
The Post. “It’s not her fault. We understand the cutbacks — every agency had to incur them — but taking out things like the weekend trash pickups from the baskets is not the smartest way to do it.”
Sanitation cuts included $21 million for litter-basket pickup.
Garcia is “competent, everybody likes her” and “she seems to know her business,” Holden added. He blamed de Blasio for stretching Garcia too thin. She served as the interim head of NYCHA in 2019, in addition to overseeing the Sanitation Department, and then took on the title of “emergency food czar” during the coronavirus crisis.
The Garcia-led program has delivered 100 million free meals to New Yorkers, but it’s also suffered logistical hiccups, including drivers dumping deliveries or bringing them to the wrong address.