Monday, November 2, 2026, 10 a.m. (New York City time), 250 Broadway - 8th Floor - Hearing Room 1
Committee: Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management
The Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management held an oversight hearing on the Department of Sanitation's 2026-27 snow preparedness plan. The Commissioner testified about a more robust emergency snow shoveler program (pay increased to $30/hour), new priority criteria for clearing roughly 20,000 corners (near bus and subway stops, high-pedestrian crosswalks, accessible pedestrian signals, and areas with high populations of people with mobility challenges), 47 bike lane plows, and coordination with NYCDOT and NYCParks. Council members questioned the department on crosswalk and curb-cut accessibility, alleyway trash collection suspension notification, property owner shoveling responsibilities and fines, equipment fleet age, missed alternate-side sweeping, and DOT's failure to clear bridge sidewalks. Legislation to make PlowNYC historical data publicly accessible and Intro 1042 (snow barrier tracking) were discussed. Public testimony came from disability advocates urging the City to take greater responsibility for accessible snow removal and from a critic of the City's waste-by-rail export system.
5:52 1 2 1 3. Hello. Can I presume?
5:52 Czech there
6:13 home, just your this is chief
7:15 sergeant, iran's rafael perez
7:16 conducting an audio check for
7:17 you wanted. Mcalpin union. We
8:15 can hear you. Okay. Thank you.
8:19 Thank you and.lare.
14:17 And welcome back. Thank you
14:20 for joining us through the
14:21 committee on sanitation czar
14:26 cyber attack. Um, they were so
14:29 much highly sensitive
14:30 information and snow materials
14:31 being discussed that, you kno
14:34 wlos angeles. Really a came for
14:39 us. Um, they needed all of our
14:41 snow knowledge, um, having
14:42 said that I will now turn it
14:44 over to Council Member states
14:45 as well for some questions
14:49 .thank you, chair? Uh, before I
14:50 start with questions. I just
14:52 want to acknowledge the
14:54 constituent who was killed in
14:57 my district last week by a
14:59 sanitation truck and I know
15:01 the incident is still under
15:04 investigation and will have
15:05 lots of time to discuss, you
15:06 know what could have been don
15:07 e, but I appreciate so much the
15:09 the early outreach by eu
15:12 commissioner and your
15:13 commitment to, you know,
15:15 finding out whatever we can do
15:16 to prevent that from happening
15:17 again, so thank you so much.
15:22 Um
15:22 , I want to ask primarily when
15:27 it comes to snow, clearing
15:28 some.
15:29 We've established, I think
15:29 as the result of the last
15:31 hearing that the corner
15:33 property is responsible for
15:34 clearing a pedestrian ramp is
15:38 that correct corner property
15:39 is responsible for clearin
15:40 gthe podesta the path to an
15:42 dincluding a pedestrian ramp
15:44 that
15:44 . Is largely correct. Yes, ok.
15:46 And I think at the last
15:48 hearing we discussed and what
15:49 I don't I don't believe you
15:50 had been appointed yet and so,
15:52 um, my sort of pet peeve last
15:55 year because of everyone
15:56 pushing a stroller and having
15:58 accessibility issues is that
15:59 people were clearing the
16:02 corner a path to the corne
16:03 rand clearing the pad ramp, but
16:05 then sanitation was plowing
16:08 h's snow such that it piled up
16:09 right at the end of the
16:11 crosswalk so there would be a
16:12 mountain of snow in between
16:14 the crosswalk where peopl
16:14 ewere crossing and then the
16:16 properly cleared, hopefully
16:20 pedestrian ramp. Hopefully we
16:21 don't get that level of sno
16:22 wagain such that it has
16:23 mountains, sort of staying on
16:24 the street, but at the time
16:26 the acting commissioner was
16:28 looking into ways that we
16:29 could sort of make sure that
16:31 the entire crosswalk was
16:32 cleared, particularly when the
16:33 corner property is doing,
16:34 they're there. Peace and
16:35 clearing the pet ramp. I'm
16:37 wondering if there's a
16:38 strategy this year around
16:41 around that? Yes. So to start
16:42 .I think that's where having
16:44 . The emergency snow shoveler
16:46 program be much more robust
16:48 and also having more, uh,
16:50 snowblowers and other
16:51 equipment to be able to
16:53 respond to those areas more
16:54 quickly will be really helpful
16:56 . We've also, um, has done a
16:59 lot of work in routing to
17:01 those corners were trying to
17:04 to avoid this distinction
17:06 between its uh, head ramp
17:07 versus it's a crosswalk
17:09 , versus we're just treating
17:11 everything on the corner that
17:12 connects the sidewalk to the
17:13 street as a corner and if we
17:16 get there and it's not
17:17 shoveled. We all shovel it if
17:18 we get there and it's shovele
17:19 d. Great will move on. Uh, so
17:22 the thing that we that we're
17:22 doing differently from a
17:24 routing perspective this yea
17:24 ras we are trying to prioritize
17:27 which corners we are doing
17:28 first with our snow shovelers
17:29 and our sanitation workers. We
17:32 have a couple different
17:33 criteria that we're using to
17:36 prioritize those the first is
17:37 any corner that is
17:38 . Within 200 feet of a bus
17:40 stop or a subway stop is
17:43 getting prioritized.
17:44 Any corner that is on at dot
17:46 has a sort of five tier
17:49 ranking of crosswalks. Um, any
17:51 corner that's in the top three
17:53 tiers of those rankings, uh,
17:55 which is that the areas that
17:56 have the highest number of
18:01 pedestrians. Um, those are
18:02 prioritized. Uh, we're also
18:03 looking at them corners that
18:06 have the accessible pedestrian
18:08 are all prioritized in total
18:14 it comes out to around 20000
18:16 corners, which we understand
18:17 is still a very small share of
18:19 all of the corners in New York
18:21 City
18:21 , I think they're, you know,
18:23 there's never a world where we
18:24 are going to get.
18:25 To everything as a number
18:28 one priority, so we have to do
18:29 some prioritization based o
18:30 nwhere the most people are
18:33 moving in, you know, in the
18:35 days immediately after a storm
18:37 and one of the things that we
18:39 are also doing is working with
18:40 the mayor's office.
18:41 For people with disabilities
18:45 and, um, the department for
18:45 the aging to make sure that we
18:48 are also prioritizing areas
18:50 where we know there are high
18:51 populations of people with
18:53 mobility challenges are, um,
18:53 who rely on the ability of
18:54 devices to get around so that
18:57 we are also accounting for
18:58 . That. And if I I mean, it
19:00 sounds like you sort of worked
19:01 out that priority structure
19:03 but.
19:03 Schools were also what I
19:04 heard the most of and granted,
19:06 I know it's mostly dios
19:08 responsibility to clear
19:09 outside of school sites but
19:11 making sure those corners are
19:12 clear given the heavy
19:14 pedestrian traffic, especially
19:15 during you know, dismissal and
19:18 dropping drop off as well.
19:19 Yeah, absolutely. And I
19:21 think that.
19:21 New York City public schools
19:23 , custodial staff do
19:25 tremendous work to get schools
19:27 back open often, you know, in
19:29 the hours or less than a day
19:30 after the snowfall ends. Um, I
19:33 think the thing that we that
19:34 we try to work very close with
19:35 them on is making sure that
19:37 the routes to get to that
19:40 school
19:40 . Either from the nearest
19:41 . Public transit stop or from
19:43 where? Uh, where parents are
19:45 buses are dropping off are
19:47 also clear, so it's not just
19:49 the sidewalk immediately
19:49 proximate to the school. But
19:50 it's the larger area around
19:52 the school, and that's
19:52 something that we work very
19:55 closely with Kevin moran,
19:56 who's their chief operating
19:56 officer and his team on. Grea
19:58 t. Thank you so much thanks to
20:01 . Ah, I'd like to, um
20:03 recognize that we've been
20:05 joined by the Council Member
20:06 vernick often zoom and I don't
20:08 think I said, uh, councilman.
20:10 Bressler earlier, but I want
20:11 to make sure, um, and now we
20:12 will turn it over to you,
20:16 councilmember Wilson. Thank
20:17 you. Chair. Hello,
20:17 commissioner. Thank you for
20:18 your testimony just to the
20:19 follow about the pedestrian
20:22 access is with this New robust
20:25 a team of shovelers. Um, is
20:28 there a certain standard that
20:31 you expect to be able to have
20:35 pedestrian side the
20:36 intersections in pet ramps
20:38 . Cleared that perhaps you
20:40 weren't able to have in the
20:41 last time and and also it if,
20:49 um, I'm sorry
20:51 . You, uh, 301 says that I
20:54 think you have to wait like 7
20:55 2hours before reporting or
20:58 accepting complaints about the
20:59 bus shelters being cleared, do
21:00 you expect that to remain the
21:02 same given the New a robust
21:05 workforce that you have doing
21:06 some of the
21:06 . Shoveling, so I will, I'll
21:08 start by saying that robust
21:10 workforce that we expect to
21:11 have is one that we are still
21:13 working to build and so we
21:15 need the help of not only
21:17 every City Council Member, but
21:19 every other elected official
21:20 and community leader to help
21:21 us get to
21:24 . The level of preregistration
21:25 for snow shovelers that we
21:26 need in order to be able to
21:28 mount a really robust response
21:30 and you know we have more tim
21:31 e, it's still, you know, out
21:33 right now, it's only novembe
21:36 r2, but, uh, snow will be here
21:37 before we know it and we need
21:39 to to continue working in that
21:43 direction
21:43 . Um, as far as a specific, u
21:45 h, expectation around when
21:46 certain assets will be cleared
21:47 , I think it's far too
21:49 dependent on the
21:50 characteristics of an
21:52 individual snowstorm. The
21:52 temperature is into it. The
21:53 amount of sense that's already
21:54 on the ground and lots of
21:56 other factors. So I don't
21:57 think we can commit to a
22:00 specific response time for
22:02 every single corner in the
22:03 City or every single bus stop
22:03 in the City, except that we we
22:06 we will respond faster than we
22:07 have in the past and we are
22:10 tracking it much better. So
22:12 . We know as the department of
22:14 sanitation, which assets have
22:15 been cleared by our staff or
22:17 by our store shovelers and
22:17 which have not and we'll be
22:21 able to, um to sort of move
22:23 through that the whole set of
22:25 assets more strategically
22:26 after the fact, uh, what was
22:28 the other question. Sorry. I
22:31 think you
22:31 . Answered. It was kind of
22:32 just about like the time
22:33 response times and what you
22:34 expect the season, the so ask
22:37 about bike lanes for a second,
22:40 so the 20, the 1020 25 26 snow
22:43 plan committed to treating
22:45 bite planes simultaneously
22:46 with roadways, but I think
22:47 there's some 311 guidance
22:50 describes clearing bike lanes
22:52 after streets and says tha
22:52 tthe clearance is not
22:54 guaranteed, so could you
22:55 clarify which policy we can
22:58 expect
22:58 . Yeah, so that's and hundred
23:00 1 language is clearly out of
23:02 date and we'll make sure that
23:03 we go in and clean that up? U
23:04 h, because we have 47 plow
23:07 units on hand that we deploy
23:10 actually generally before the
23:12 snow starts, we have tried in
23:15 the past priming by claims we
23:15 find that salting by works
23:16 better. It also gives good
23:19 traction for for people wh
23:20 oyou know, have to use by plans
23:21 to get around, even during the
23:23 snowfall. So we have that
23:24 equipment out.
23:25 And assigned two routes, uh,
23:27 wallet snowing after it sounds
23:29 snowing. Um, you know there
23:30 are situations where if there
23:32 is a bike lane is is blocked
23:34 . By a car or if it's an for
23:35 meso reason and gets really
23:39 heavy accumulations it can be
23:41 very difficult and very slow
23:42 work, too. Shovel that out? U
23:45 m, using either daniel shovels
23:47 or are skid steers or other
23:50 small equipment. And so you
23:51 know, one of the things that I
23:51 personally not in this role,
23:52 but as a New yorker observed
23:56 last year in the storm was
23:59 some some protected bike lanes
24:00 that we're not able to b
24:01 eserviced during the storm
24:05 .where then? You know
24:05 ,unfortunately full of snow
24:06 that that turned into a block
24:07 of ice and there was really no
24:08 digging them out, so I think
24:10 one of the things that we're
24:11 trying to do this year is have
24:13 situational awareness about
24:15 where are small. Clouds are
24:16 not able to get into the bike
24:17 lanes during a storm and try
24:18 to respond to that either by
24:21 removing vehicles or towing,
24:23 uh, telling people out of
24:24 . There and do you feel like
24:25 you have enough equipment of
24:27 the appropriate sized
24:28 equipment to be able to.
24:31 Deal with them. I think we
24:32 do? Certainly something tha
24:33 twe're looking at as um is
24:36 working on their updated
24:37 streets master plan and
24:40 they're planning around
24:40 additional, uh, bike
24:41 infrastructure, additional
24:43 pedestrian infrastructure is
24:44 planning proactively so that
24:45 we are buying New equipment in
24:47 advance of them installing New
24:50 capital assets instead of the
24:50 other way around for a long
24:53 time. You know, we sort of
24:54 played ketchup after
24:55 . Would build a thing we'd say
24:58 we need resources to take car
24:59 eof that thing and there's a
25:00 you gap between the thing
25:04 existing and us having the
25:04 resources to deal with its or
25:05 trying to get ahead of that
25:07 and hopefully in the context
25:08 of the budget. That's
25:09 something that we are to talk
25:11 and then
25:15 . I think over the winch
25:16 months. We can begin to
25:17 anticipate more street bed
25:20 dining structures emerging.
25:22 How are you anticipating,
25:22 dealing with that a New
25:25 challenge in the street when
25:25 it comes to a snow removal, so
25:28 it's it's a New challenge in
25:30 that they are an authorized
25:32 for permanent year round
25:35 placemen butt, we did deal
25:36 with four years of the
25:39 temporary covid pandemic
25:40 program and there were far
25:41 more dining sheds out on the
25:42 streets than there are today.
25:43 Um, I think we have a good
25:45 approach as far as making sure
25:46 that our routes can
25:48 accommodate them. We have a
25:49 really good relationship with
25:50 our sister agencies at
25:54 placement, making sure there
25:55 is adequate room to get our
25:57 vehicles through and most
25:59 importantly, adequate room for
26:00 vehicles to be able to tur
26:01 nbecause a collection truck
26:02 with a plow on, it does have a
26:04 wider turning radius than just
26:05 a standard collection truck
26:07 .so we need. We need to make
26:08 sure that we can get our plows
26:09 into blocks that we can safely
26:11 through the block and I think
26:12 we'll be in a good a good
26:13 place this year. Thank you.
26:18 Sure? And next we'll hear from
26:19 a Council Member chanel Thomas
26:23 . Henry. Thank you. Cheer. Ah,
26:24 my first question is as it
26:25 relates to alley wave last
26:27 season we saw an accumulation
26:29 of trash behind homes in there
26:31 alleyways because residents
26:33 weren't aware that they needed
26:34 to place them in front of
26:35 their homes and these are
26:36 residents who had lived there
26:39 for decades. What triggers the
26:42 moving the trash from behin
26:43 dyour house in the alleyway to
26:45 the front yard and how those
26:46 will those residents be
26:49 alerted
26:49 . So that's that's something
26:50 that I very much want to do
26:52 differently this year, um, in
26:53 the past, I think we've we've
26:55 relied too much on people just
26:59 assuming the right thing to.
26:59 Do uh, this year, I think we
27:02 would like to be more more
27:04 clear and more proactive about
27:07 telling people alley service
27:08 is suspended, effective on x
27:11 state.
27:12 And will not resume for at
27:13 least why a number of days, so
27:16 . Looking at the the storm
27:16 ,for example, from last year,