Uptown Trash Complaints Sky Rocketed Amid Vax Mandate For Workers

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — Garbage piled up in Washington Heights and Inwood over the past 11 days, amid a slowdown in sanitation services coinciding with the newly imposed vaccination mandate for city workers, according to residents and 311 data.

Since Oct. 25, residents living in the 10032, 10033, 10034, and 10040 ZIP codes have made 68 complaints to 311 about missed trash pickups in Washington Heights and Inwood, according to city records.

Staggeringly, that's more than 10 times the amount of complaints made during the previous 11 days, when just six were filed.

In a bit of good news, those complaints have fallen drastically, though, in the past few days.

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.

The missed trash collections were widespread in Upper Manhattan.

Here's every Washington Heights and Inwood address where a resident has made a complaint about missed trash pickup since Oct. 25.

• 505 WEST 173 STREET
• 625 WEST 164 STREET
• 620 WEST 171 STREET
• 4700 BROADWAY
• 30 SEAMAN AVENUE
• 165 SHERMAN AVENUE
• 175 PAYSON AVENUE
• 655 WEST 160 STREET
• 29 WADSWORTH AVENUE
• 412 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 532 WEST 215 STREET
• 165 SEAMAN AVENUE
• 175 PAYSON AVENUE
• 248 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 1946 AMSTERDAM AVENUE
• 4410 BROADWAY
• 609 WEST 189 STREET
• 559 WEST 156 STREET
• 20 CUMMING STREET
• 25 NAGLE AVENUE
• 532 WEST 215 STREET
• 98 PARK TERRACE EAST
• 434 WEST 162 STREET
• 621 WEST 188 STREET
• 5 SYLVAN TERRACE
• 625 WEST 156 STREET
• 537 WEST 217 STREET
• 386 FORT WASHINGTON AVENUE
• 10 JUMEL TERRACE
• 540 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 436 WEST 162 STREET
• 248 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 270 NAGLE AVENUE
• 240 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 561 WEST 180 STREET
• 944 ST NICHOLAS AVENUE
• 220 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 444 WEST 162 STREET
• 10 JUMEL TERRACE
• 214 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 441 WEST 162 STREET
• 675 WEST 187 STREET
• 220 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 214 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 240 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 600 WEST 165 STREET
• 900 RIVERSIDE DRIVE
• 601 WEST 164 STREET
• 145 WADSWORTH AVENUE
• 444 WEST 162 STREET
• 100 OVERLOOK TERRACE
• 812 RIVERSIDE DRIVE
• 625 WEST 164 STREET
• 625 WEST 156 STREET
• 561 WEST 159 STREET
• 449 WEST 162 STREET
• 600 WEST 165 STREET
• 715 WEST 170 STREET
• 120 CABRINI BOULEVARD
• 371 FT WASHINGTON AVENUE
• 60 SEAMAN AVENUE
• 461 FT WASHINGTON AVENUE
• 434 WEST 162 STREET
• 50 PARK TERRACE EAST
• 455 FT WASHINGTON AVENUE
• 436 WEST 162 STREET
• 434 WEST 162 STREET
• 415 WEST 154 STREET
• 636 WEST 172 STREET
• 10 BENNETT AVENUE
• 436 WEST 162 STREET
• 436 WEST 162 STREET
• 434 WEST 162 STREET
• 440 WEST 162 STREET
• 962 ST NICHOLAS AVENUE
• 15 SICKLES STREET
• 334 AUDUBON AVENUE
• 834 RIVERSIDE DRIVE
• 621 WEST 188 STREET
• 625 WEST 156 STREET
• 801 RIVERSIDE DRIVE
• 100 PARK TERRACE WEST
• 371 FT WASHINGTON AVENUE
• 44 SEAMAN AVENUE
• 1948 AMSTERDAM AVENUE
• 454 WEST 155 STREET
• 2440 AMSTERDAM AVENUE
• 430 WEST 162 STREET
• 4960 BROADWAY
• 825 WEST 179 STREET
• 620 WEST 171 STREET
• 825 WEST 179 STREET
• 454 WEST 155 STREET
• 620 WEST 171 STREET
• 451 WEST 162 STREET
• 624 WEST 156 STREET
• 20 CUMMING STREET
• 20 CUMMING STREET
• 175 PAYSON AVENUE
• 145 WADSWORTH AVENUE

"The garbage and weeds are out of control on Broadway between 218th and 219th," one uptown resident wrote Tuesday on Facebook. "Hundreds of students walk through this to get to school. I don't remember it being this bad in previous years."

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.

This appears to be true — on Monday and Tuesday, there were only four complaints in Upper Manhattan about missed trash collections.

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.

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.

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.