Q&A
Council Member Bottcher addresses BID concerns with DSNY Deputy Commissioner
1:36:51
·
3 min
Council Member Erik D. Bottcher expresses concerns from Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in his district about the Department of Sanitation's (DSNY) containerization plans. He questions DSNY Deputy Commissioner Joshua Goodman about communication with BIDs and challenges they face in implementing the new policies. Goodman commits to continued meetings and clarifies misconceptions about the proposed policy.
- Bottcher highlights BIDs' dissatisfaction with DSNY's dialogue and potential conflicts with existing contracts and regulations.
- Goodman acknowledges the need for better communication and emphasizes the flexibility in implementing containerization solutions.
- The discussion reveals a gap in understanding between DSNY's intentions and BIDs' perceptions of the new waste management policies.
Erik D. Bottcher
1:36:51
Hi.
1:36:53
Josh, a lot of my bids are here from throughout my council district, and they're here because they're they're not happy with, generally speaking, a lot of them are telling me that they're not happy with the how things are going with the dialogue with the Department of Sanitation and, a lot of them are shaking their heads yes as I say that.
1:37:17
They were shaking their heads no to a lot of the stuff you were saying before.
1:37:23
How are you communicating with them?
1:37:26
Are you are you meeting regularly with them?
1:37:29
Are you really making an effort to understand how their operations work?
1:37:36
They're telling me that a lot of the things you're asking them to do run afoul to their their contracts, both with the city and other vendors.
1:37:46
They're telling me that some of the things that you're asking them to do would require Landmarks approval, Public Design Commission approval, because they're not gonna do the the wheelie bins.
1:37:56
They would want, like, fixed containers.
1:37:59
But generally speaking, will you commit to meeting sitting down with them physically and meeting
Joshua Goodman
1:38:06
Of course.
1:38:07
And and we've I will tell you, council member, that I would like to have a lot more meetings on this topic because, we've had, you know, quite a few with the bid association and with many of the individual bids, both at the policy making level and at the operational level.
1:38:21
Our chief of cleaning operations has met with a number of the bids directly.
1:38:25
I would really like this to continue, particularly because it's obvious from the sort of murmurs and whispers that I've heard behind me that there's a tremendous amount of misinformation about the proposed policy.
1:38:35
Again, like, there's no draft rollout.
1:38:36
There's a considerable rollout time still to come.
1:38:39
There's room for site visits and negotiations and conversations.
1:38:44
And I am concerned that many of these civic leaders seem to have a misunderstanding about what the proposed policy is or will be.
1:38:52
So I I appreciate you raising it because I would be ecstatic to continue to meet with these groups
Erik D. Bottcher
1:38:56
in Quebec.
1:38:57
Week is Thanksgiving week, but perhaps the following week, you would sit with them.
1:39:03
There's a lot of them, so maybe break it up by borough or something.
1:39:07
Would you do that?
Joshua Goodman
1:39:08
Yeah.
1:39:08
We'll work on an exact date.
1:39:10
I don't want to, you know, commit and then it turns out someone's on vacation, whatever.
1:39:13
But, yes, these meetings have to continue to happen.
1:39:16
Because again, you know, just to restate, the core of the policy is very straightforward.
1:39:21
All the businesses and many of the residents are not allowed to leave a bag of trash on the street.
1:39:27
And the idea is that a bid bag, which again, historically, the bid bags were the most well managed trash in the city.
1:39:33
It was great.
1:39:34
It was amazing.
1:39:35
You walk down the street and the bid bags are nicely, you know, put together on the corner.
1:39:39
But now because of the progress in the forward march of the trash revolution, the bid bag trash is just about the only uncontainerized trash left in some of these neighborhoods.
1:39:47
So the point is to come up with a solution, any solution that gets it off the street.
1:39:53
And if a bid is saying, well, you know, we would require Landmarks approval for on street containers, then they can use wheelie bins.
1:40:00
Well, we don't want to use wheelie bins.
1:40:01
Okay.
1:40:01
Then let's begin the Landmarks process.
1:40:03
Like, any one of these questions has a solution, So let's get to work on it.
1:40:07
Thank you.
