East Side Garbage Trucks Could Cause Stink For Up To 3 Years

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The nearly two dozen garbage trucks using three residential streets on the East Side as an impromptu parking lot may be a years-long fixture, according to the district manager of Community Board 3 who was briefed on the matter by the city's Department of Sanitation.

"I’m told this is temporary — temporary being, I’m told, a year to three years," said Susan Stetzer, at the board's monthly meeting Wednesday night.

The Department of Sanitation's lease expired from a garage at 606 W. 30th St. and left the city scrambling to find an alternative. Sanitation officials relocated the trucks to E. 10th Street, Mt. Carmel Place and York Avenue where residents and businesses are forced to endure foul-smelling trucks coming and going at all hours of the day.

In the two weeks since the trucks rolled into the East Village, livid locals have inundated Community Board 3 and Councilwoman Carlina Rivera's office with dozens of complaints grousing about the stench of garbage, health and safety concerns and the impact on small businesses, among other concerns.

Rivera has relayed those frustrated to the city and is working to find an alternative that involves the community's input, she said at Community Board 3's Wednesday meeting.

"I am outraged, I know you’re angry, I’m angry too about the sanitation trucks," said Rivera. "What’s most important is that the community boards, and local residents … need to be consulted going forward."

One resident can't imagine dealing with the "canyon of garbage trucks" for months let alone for up to three years.

"This is insane," Michelle Lang, who lives in an E. 10th Street building near Second Avenue, told Patch. "It's a huge quality of life issue and it's an embarrassment that they've known about this for years and did nothing."

The Department of Sanitation has long known that it would need to seek new space to store the trucks but has yet to find a suitable alternative.

As a "last resort," the city placed the vehicles on the trio of East Side streets because they are near stations where sanitation workers receive work orders and use the restroom, according to Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Belinda Mager.

But even Mayor Bill de Blasio says the temporary solution stinks.

"Do we want garbage trucks parked on residential streets? Of course not," the mayor said at a Wednesday news conference on an unrelated topic. "I’ll talk to the commissioner and see what we can do to relieve the immediate pressure. We certainly don’t want those residential areas to feel the burden."

Rivera and Community Board 3 are meeting with the Department of Sanitation Monday to discuss the matter. The sanitation department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the potential for trucks to remain parked on the East Side for years.

Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch