NEW YORK (PIX11) -- New York City's Sanitation Commissioner says the passing of Prop 2 on Election Day is a win for a cleaner New York City.
Jessica Tisch tells PIX 11News "What it will mean ultimately is that containerization is here in New York City to stay." The initiative will be added to the City Charter.
Under the containerization project, New Yorkers are required to throw out garbage in cans with secure lids. Large apartment buildings and schools must put trash in large bins on the street.
Tisch also said, "A New Yorker might think, oh the Department of Sanitation can clean any part of the city. Today that's not the case. The charter limits what we can clean."
However, Prop 2 now gives the department the jurisdiction to provide supplemental cleaning to medians, parks, and highways if the Mayor gives the directive. It would also allow Sanitation Police to ticket illegal street vendors who set up inside City Parks and not just on sidewalks.
Mohamed Attia, with the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, says it's bad news for vendors who he says cannot get vending licenses due to a waitlist of more than 20,000 people.
Attia tells PIX11 News the expanded jurisdiction of the Sanitation Department "means more fining, more ticketing, more handcuffs, more arrests, and of course that takes away from the income they're making and the ability to sustain themselves."
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