Trash Piles Up In Harlem As Vaccine Mandates Take Effect: Data

HARLEM, NY — Garbage has piled up in Harlem in recent days, amid a slowdown in sanitation services coinciding with the newly imposed vaccination mandate for city workers, according to residents and 311 data.

Since last Monday, residents have made 64 complaints to 311 about missed trash pickups in Harlem, according to city records. That's more than triple the complaints made the previous week, when just 20 were filed.

The deadline for city workers to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination was Friday afternoon. On Monday, workers who had not gotten a shot were put on unpaid leave.

In the days before the mandate took effect, New Yorkers began complaining of missed garbage pickups. Initially most prevalent in Staten Island and south Brooklyn, the trend has since spread to Manhattan neighborhoods, according to 311 data.

Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested last week the trend was caused by workers staying home to express opposition to the mandate. On Monday, Sanitation Commissioner Ed Grayson vowed that pickups would resume a normal schedule by later that afternoon.

As of Sunday, 82 percent of Sanitation workers had gotten at least one vaccine dose — a 20 percent increase since Oct. 19, but still the sixth-lowest of any city agency.

Even before the recent slowdown, sanitation services have been a major source of scorn in Harlem, where complaints about rats and filthy streets have mounted during the pandemic. In recent days, some Harlemites have taken to Twitter to ask the city about missed pickups on their blocks.

Despite the hiccups in agencies like Sanitation and the FDNY, De Blasio's administration has touted the mandates for managing to compel thousands of city workers to get their shots. Some agencies, he noted Monday, had seen double-digit percentage-point increases in vaccination status leading up to this week.

In total, 91 percent of city workers had gotten vaccinated by Monday, while about 9,000 people were put on unpaid leave this week for failing to get their shots, de Blasio said.