Walking to work in the morning, I often observe NYC Sanitation workers on their rounds of early morning trash pick-up and street cleaning. There are many more interesting sights available to take in on my walk, however, none are as instructive. NYC is an exciting, busy, stimulating place to live and experience street life while walking. It is also a city where taxes are high and municipal services levels are deficient in providing even the most basic of services such as effective and efficient sanitation services. Living in this city, I habitually notice dirty streets while knowing that the very highly paid Sanitation Department that is responsible for doing this work is performing so inadequately and is not accountable to the people for their unacceptable efforts. Sanitation workers are part of a highly unionized NYC municipal work force that has a strangle-hold on the city’s political scene and this phenomenon has been escalated since Mayor Bill de Blasio assumed office. The unions are in virtual control of this city rather than the tax payers and citizens.
A job in great demand
Sanitation Worker jobs in NYC are in extreme demand. 68,720 people are currently on the qualified list that resulted from the last civil service exam in February of 2015. The Sanitation Department only has an anticipated need of hiring 500 new workers a year. Even for the very few lucky candidates, it may take years to join the ranks of 7,000 fellow workers. The allure of the job which is often challenging, difficult and at times dangerous is the substantial pay and a union negotiated benefits and pension package that allows these workers to afford a comfortable middle class life style and often permits them to retire early.
BIDs work
There are stark exceptions to the dirty city and they can be found on the streets where the responsibility for cleaning has been assumed by seventy-three privately funded Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and The Doe Fund. The Doe Fund is a local non-profit organization dedicated alleviating homelessness by providing opportunities for work which includes paid employment cleaning city streets. It currently employs one thousand workers.
The E 83rd St divide
The contrast in my neighborhood between where The Doe Fund services and streets where the Sanitation Department is solely responsible for providing services is obvious to any observer. For example, one can simply examine the dividing line between service providers on E 83rd Street. The south side of the street and the corresponding corners where The Doe Fund operates, the streets are clean and garbage is collected and tied up in neat plastic bags ready for pick-up as opposed to right across the street on the north side where NYC Sanitation is responsible and overflowing garbage cans and trash lined streets reign.
Double taxation
In the local news is the negative reaction by the community caused by the substandard performance of the street cleaning services delivered by NYC Sanitation on E. 86th Street which is the major commercial and business center of my neighborhood. It has reached a point where the local City Council person has called for the creation of a local BID to address the problem. BIDs are effective and have proved to provide a high level of services, however, they are funded by additional assessments of residences and businesses within their operating district. In other words, additional taxes are levied on the inhabitants of the district without the granting of any tax relief due for future non-delivery of services by the city.
In fact, the creation of BIDs serves to bail out several City agencies out of the responsibility of providing cost efficient and effective delivery of services including sanitation and enhanced security. In a union dominated city like New York, the political environment will never allow for the logical solution that many other municipalities have taken. Many municipalities around other parts of the country eliminate providing these types of services entirely and outsource and contract these responsibilities directly to efficient private providers such as Waste Management and Republic Services.
Living in Mayor Bill De Blasio’s progressively run city
I live in a distinctly politically progressive city. I have in common with my politically left leaning neighbors paying ever higher levels of taxes and receiving very little in the manner of quality services delivered by NYC in return. For example, my neighbors utilize Central Park and marvel at the restoration and the current gratifying environment offered by visiting the park. They may not realize that the reason the Central Park works so well is that it no longer run by the city but rather it operates under the management of the private Central Park Conservatory. Same with Bryant Park and other restored parks around the city. It is evident for all to notice that The Bronx Zoo, the NY Botanical Gardens and charter schools, privately run and funded BIDs and The Doe Fund provide efficient running of services in a cost effective and accountable fashion and NYC government’s departments and agencies quite often fail to do so. In light of all of this, municipal budgets are never cut and overall spending continues to increase along with taxes.
A left leaning ideological point of view dominates my neighbor’s political outlook
However, my politically left leaning neighbors in my city will carry on voting against their best interests and continue to elect to place more responsibility for delivery of services and dealing with providing workable solutions to many issues that we face as a society in the hands of an ever expanding government. Their strong belief in an ideology that supports big government above all else outweighs in their minds all the evidence available to the contrary in their daily lives that they stand on the wrong side of the debate regarding the proper role for government. It defies logic that if Big Government can’t seem to be able to manage to effectively pick up the litter in our streets, how can they be expected to successfully run our health care system, our educational systems, provide housing, deal with environmental issues, public safety or anything else that involves issues more challenging or complex?
The RightQuestions 