Q&A
Council Member Zhuang inquires about religious accommodations for snow removal and garbage collection
0:41:54
ยท
160 sec
Council Member Susan Zhuang raises concerns about religious accommodations for snow removal and garbage collection, particularly for communities observing Shabbat. DSNY officials explain their policies on enforcing snow removal and trash collection rules, emphasizing the need for fair application while acknowledging the challenges faced by certain religious communities.
- DSNY states they would issue summons for uncleared snow even on religious holidays due to pedestrian safety concerns.
- Officials discuss the possibility of changing collection days in neighborhoods with high populations of Shabbat-observant residents.
- DSNY emphasizes that property owners are responsible for complying with rules, regardless of individual religious observances.
Susan Zhuang
0:41:54
Thank you.
0:41:54
And I appreciate all the park sanitation here in my history.
0:41:54
I do have some questions.
0:42:02
It's not working.
0:42:03
It's working.
0:42:06
So some community has holidays.
0:42:10
During the holidays, if they by religious reason, they cannot remove the snow, what kind of will they get tickets inside of work?
Javier Lojan
0:42:23
I I mean, ultimately, what we try to do is speak to the property owner before, if it's possible, before we issue a summons.
0:42:30
But, yes, we would issue a summons, you know, across, you know, any day if there's snowfall because then they would create a it would would create a pedestrian hazard if it doesn't get cleared right away.
Susan Zhuang
0:42:42
Is any program, like, holiday coming up or when it's during Shabbat, they're not able to take out garbage, anything?
0:42:54
I do have a concern get a lot of tickets during the shipyard time, because they have to take out the garbage early before the sunset.
0:43:04
And then they got the tickets because they take out the garbage before 8 o'clock.
0:43:08
Is there any way anything thing sanitation can do?
0:43:11
But it's not fair for them because Right.
0:43:14
This their religious reason, they cannot do that.
Javier Lojan
0:43:16
This is why I wanna take this one.
0:43:18
So thank
Joshua Goodman
0:43:19
you, council member.
0:43:19
We you know, we hear this from from certain neighborhoods.
0:43:22
I mean, our position is that this is the property owner's responsibility to comply with the rules.
0:43:26
Right?
0:43:26
It's doesn't have to be any individual person who may have a religious reason why they can't take the trash out, but somebody in the property has to be putting it out after or not.
0:43:35
They could skip that collection day if they don't wanna put the trash out.
0:43:39
We have to apply these rules evenly and fairly.
0:43:43
You know, there are so many people in every neighborhood that you represent who have seen the results of the later trash set at times, who've seen the results of our enforcement of sidewalk passability and cleanliness, and that requires us enforcing it evenly.
0:43:59
I will say in certain neighborhoods that have a high population of people who are shomer Shabbos or are Shabbat observant.
0:44:07
We've offered to move the collection day to a different day of the week so this wouldn't come up at all.
0:44:12
And so far, community leaders have said, oh, no.
0:44:14
We like that you do it when there's no traffic.
0:44:16
So that's a trade off.
0:44:17
We're happy to make that change if they don't want Saturday to be a collection day at all.
0:44:20
Truly, like, we're totally open.
0:44:22
We're waiting to hear from community leaders.
0:44:24
But in the meantime, the property owner has to find a way to make sure that the trash goes out at the legally required time and that the sidewalk is clear for everyone to be able to get where they need to go.
Susan Zhuang
0:44:33
Okay.
0:44:33
Thank you.