Op-Ed: A Salute to the DSNY
By Councilwoman Joann Ariola
There’s been a bit of talk on social media and around the neighborhood about the DSNY and their work here in Rockaway, so I would like to just take a minute to clear the air. The NYC Department of Sanitation – and especially Rockaway’s Q14 garage – is doing an amazing job keeping our communities tidy. Those messes that we see around town are the exceptions, not the rule, when it comes to their work here on the peninsula, and it would be a very different situation if the men and women of New York’s Strongest were actually neglecting their duties as some people out there are saying.
Q14 has less than a hundred people assigned to the garage, and only about half of them are on shift during the busiest hours of the day (the others are divided into the later afternoon, evening, and overnight shifts, as well as those with scheduled time off). These workers are responsible for the entirety of the Rockaway peninsula, as well as Broad Channel. To achieve such a wide spread, they focus on certain sections each day, handling not only the regular duty of picking up your household garbage and recycling, but also cutting overgrown weeds, street sweeping, handling dump-outs, and more. Inevitably, some things might not get picked up right away or might fall through the cracks, but this is not because of neglect – not by any means. This is a hefty task for a small crew, and that task only gets worse each year as Rockaway sees more and more development but the garage’s manpower stays the same. This is probably only going to get worse if City of Yes comes into play, but I digress… that is an argument for another time.
Then, to make matters worse, there is the business of budget cuts. The money that our city is shelling out to shelter and feed tens of thousands of migrants does not grow on trees – some of it was taken directly from the budget of the DSNY. Notably, some of this money was found by slashing the department’s dedicated “Lot Cleaning Unit,” which had previously been responsible for dealing with weed-whacking and litter picking in large vacant lots and empty spaces – something which Rockaway has no shortage of. Without that unit, the work now falls to the local garages, who pick it up as part of their mall cleaning responsibilities, adding even more work to the already overfull plates of our sanitation crews.
When it comes to keeping Rockaway clean, the unsung heroes at Q14 garage have been working harder than ever. With just a small team and fewer resources, they’re holding it together in ways most of us don’t even realize. I for one salute these men and women for their tireless, often unrecognized work day in and day out, and I hope you all do too. So next time you see them out there, take a minute to think about all of the hard work they do each and every day to keep our streets clean and our trash picked up, and maybe even say thank you to them! I am sure that they will appreciate it.
Thank you DSNY, and thank you Q14!