Demanding Answers: Almost A Year Later, Residents Say DSNY Trucks Still Stinking Up East Village
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There's a constant stench and more rats, and as a result a once-pretty East Village block looks ugly.
Residents say it's all caused by city garbage trucks that have parked there for almost a year.
On Sunday, a group of politicians agreed, calling on the Mayor Bill de Blasio to finally do something about it, CBS2's Dave Carlin reported.
"It's not fair to do to a neighborhood," resident Juan Blake said.
The lined-up city garbage trucks dominate the view out of retired math teacher Blake's fifth-floor apartment on East 10th Street.
He doesn't have to look at them to know they are there.
"I can smell it right now," Blake said.
FLASHBACK: Garbage Trucks Take Over Residential Street In East Village
The trucks became residents 11 months ago after the Department of Sanitation lost its lease for its large Manhattan garage.
Signs went up and trucks moved in to a trio of city locations, East 10th being the most lively of the three, with more apartments and more business.
Trucks are there from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and on Sundays it's all day long, Carlin reported.
"Don't come moving into a neighborhood and slowly destroying it," Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said.
Maloney and other politicians were on the block Sunday demanding the city find someplace else.
"It doesn't belong on a residential block," Maloney said.
CBS2 demanded answers from the mayor and Department of Sanitation dating back almost a year.
The following was Carlin's exchange with DSNY Commissioner Kathryn Garcia on Sept. 20:
"You lose a garage. Why no contingency plan? Or was there one and it didn't work out?" Carlin asked.
"There was a long-term plan. We just never got the approvals. I could never find another piece of property to move the M6 garage to," Garcia said.
MORE: Garbage Trucks Take Over Residential Street In East Village
Then on Sept. 26, de Blasio chimed in.
"I'll talk to the commissioner and figure out what we can do to relieve the immediate pressure," the mayor said.
But the trucks stayed and stayed.
There was no reaction from the traveling mayor on Sunday. The DSNY responded with a statement saying that the search for a replacement garage continues, but for now the parking must be where it is, close to a small First Avenue field office with toilets and lockers.
The owner of Pinks, the restaurant closest to the trucks, has a message for the mayor.
"I would implore him to maybe put a different plan into action," Alex Sassaris said.
Activists and state politicians warned if the mayor's office won't fix this, Albany should and could by passing a new law to ban the trucks from the parking spots.
