‘Reeking’ havoc
The city is parking 21 garbage trucks along three residential streets on the East Side and neighbors are raising a big stink.
The city moved its fetid fleet to East 60th, 26th and 10th streets after the Sanitation Department was evicted from a garage at 606 West 30th St. last weekend.
“This is a neighborhood, not a city parking lot,” saidaid outraged East Village condo owner Michele Matthewman, 50. “I don’t pay the property tax I do to walk out my door to this putrid smell. It’s offensive.”
Five trash trucks first barreled onto East 10th near First Avenue without warning on Sept. 15, according to locals. Signs went up along 250 feet of curb saying it was reserved for Sanitation trucks.
“We weren’t given any kind of
heads up. Nothing,” griped Matthewman, who started a petition to get rid of the trucks and already has 100 signatures. “It’s insanity and it’s just not acceptable.”
The owner of bar next door, Pinks, is on board with the protest.
“It all stinks really bad literally and metaphorically,” said Alex Sassaris, 39. “Does the smell of an enormous garbage truck in front of you while you’re eating tacos sound appetizing?”
Business has been slower than ever over the last week, said Sassaris, and he doesn’t think the trendy watering hole will make it longer than a few months.
“This is business-ending,” he said. “I’d love for the person who made this decision to speak to all the people who are going to lose their jobs.”
A resident of Kip’s Bay near the new trashy parking spot at East 26th Street and Mount Carmel Place is worried the garbage- trucks will attract rats. g
“The rodent problem in this neighborhood is bad now, but this is going to make it 10 times worse,” the resident told local blog Town&Village.
The city has long known it would need a new place to store its trucks but failed to come up with a better solution.
“We’ve been working for years to find garage space,” said Sanitation Department spokeswoman Belinda Mager. “This is the option of last resort.
“We didn’t have an option to stay [in the garage],” she continued. “The landlords wanted us out so they could develop the property, and were not willing to negotiate for us to stay. We needed to be out.”