Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday announced the creation of a city initiative he says will help clean city streets and sidewalks, further the scrubbing of graffiti and expand garbage pickup.
The mayor announced the “CleanNYC” initiative at a sanitation garage on Spring Street in the West Village with the sanitation commissioner Wednesday morning. CleanNYC, the mayor said, will enact four new policies to improve cleanliness and quality of life in New York.
First, the city will increase curb-side litter basket pickup on Sundays and holidays by 40 percent, the mayor said.
Second, an additional 100 miles of highway ramps will be swept each week. Leaves, debris and trash that gather on the ramps will be cleared, Mayor de Blasio said.
Third, CleanNYC will double the size of the city’s already-existing anti-graffiti effort, which the mayor says will clear 40 million feet of graffiti covered space each year.
One of the places to be targeted will be Brooklyn, which sees 48 percent of all graffiti-related 311 calls in the city. That's more than Manhattan and Queens combined.
Graffiti per say is not a major crime but it makes them feel quality of life is not good," de Blasio said.
Finally, the city will scrub sidewalks in heavily-trafficked areas in all five boroughs. Sidewalks on Highland Avenue in Staten Island, Church Avenue in Brooklyn, the Flushing transit hub in Queens, Jerome Avenue in the Bronx and Broadway on the Upper West Side will be cleaned with power washers, the mayor said.
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De Blasio said his support of “broken windows” policies influenced the creation of the initiative.
“People hate to see a litter basket overflowing with trash. It suggests disorder. We want to show not only order, but cleanliness. We want our neighborhoods to be more livable,” he said.
