{"id":1003219,"date":"2026-08-15T22:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003219\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T22:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:17:18","slug":"nycs-plan-to-end-sidewalk-trash-would-create-ues-dumpsterville-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003219\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s plan to end sidewalk trash would create UES ‘Dumpsterville’: critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upper East Siders are trashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s push to eliminate nearly 30,000 parking spaces <\/a>citywide and plunk tens of thousands of massive garbage containers streetside \u2013 saying it would turn the posh neighborhood into \u201cDumpsterville.\u201d<\/p>\n

The towering, UFO-like metal trash containers \u2013 called \u201cEmpire Bins\u201d \u2014 would line up like \u201cpermanent walls\u201d block by block, creating eyesores that would attract graffiti, choke out lighting and potentially cause safety concerns at night, warned Valerie Mason, who chairs Manhattan Community Board 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned about the resulting 24\/7 visual blight, and perhaps even more significant than the effect on our quality of life, we are concerned about public safety, especially at night, as ambient light from street traffic, which helps illuminate the sidewalks, may be blocked by these tall and wide non-transparent containers,\u201d wrote Mason in the board\u2019s Aug. 7 letter to Sanitation Department officials.<\/p>\n

Residents \u201cdo not want to . . . live in \u2018Upper East Dumpsterville,\u2019\u201d added Mason, who demanded the city provide the public extra time to weigh in on the controversial program.<\/p>\n

\"UpperUpper East Siders are trashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s push to eliminate nearly 30,000 parking spaces citywide and plunk tens of thousands of massive garbage containers streetside \u2013 saying it would turn the posh neighborhood into \u201cDumpsterville.\u201d Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

The Upper East Side would be the hardest hit neighborhood in the city.<\/p>\n

CB8 would lose 1,658 \u2013 or nearly 10% \u2014 of its parking spots to accommodate 3,648 containers, according to a July 1 document outlining the program\u2019s environmental impact.\u00a0<\/a>Other street space not used for parking would also accommodate the massive 6-foot-long, 5-foot-wide, 5-foot-tall metal monstrosities.<\/p>\n

Manhattan\u2019s Community Board 7, which covers the Upper West Side, would lose 1,460 \u2013 or 10.3% \u2014 of its parking to accommodate 3,211 containers.<\/p>\n

Combined, both neighborhoods would host 6,859 \u2013 or 10.2% \u2014 of the projected 66,817 Empire Bins, while 3,118 of the projected 29,842\u00a0Big Apple parking spaces slated to be be eliminated through the program would come from the UES and UWS.<\/p>\n

Empire Bins were first introduced through a 10-block pilot program<\/a> in 2023 in West Harlem as part of former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 infamous \u201cwar on rats\u201d<\/a> that called for eliminating trash bags on curbs. The program \u2014 which targets residential buildings with more than 30 units \u2014 was expanded throughout West Harlem\u2019s Manhattan Community Board 9 by June 2025, and now Mamdani wants to make it permanent citywide and roll it out through 2032.<\/p>\n

Victor Edwards, who chairs CB9, told The Post the pilot program has had \u201cmixed results.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Empire Bin along Broadway in the West Harlem section of Manhattan. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

While the local rat population might have dropped slightly, many residents are still furious about losing parking to make way for \u201cugly,\u201d huge dumpsters being plopped in front of their multimillion-dollar townhouses and brownstones, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city also needs to give communities more input on bin placement because many throughout West Harlem were placed in front of smaller homes, not only 30-plus-unit residential buildings, he added.<\/p>\n

Despite the ire in her district, UWS Democratic Councilwoman Gale Brewer said she supports the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cParking is a huge issue . . . Oh my God!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cI don\u2019t have a car, but people want them for family-member needs, medical needs, leisure, and parking [in an UWS parking lot] can be $1,400 a month.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sanitation Department spokesman Vincent Gragnani defended the Empire Bins program, saying the former \u201cdecades-old practice of leaving trash bags in stinking mounds\u201d was \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also insisted communities will have another shot to provide additional input before bins and are dumped on their respective neighborhood, and he claimed the bins would \u201cblock less ambient light than the private vehicles that currently occupy the exact same curb space today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll New Yorkers should be proud of the cleaner city that is emerging each day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper East Siders are trashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s push to eliminate nearly 30,000 parking spaces citywide and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1003220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,3387,5289,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,20034,80,7835,44966,67,586,132,5230,26318,36246,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-1003219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-board","tag-eric-adams","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-parking","tag-politics","tag-rats","tag-sanitation-department","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-upper-east-side","tag-upper-west-side","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}