New York City Trades Street Parking For Trash Bins

One of the big pushes of the Eric Adams era of New York City, besides mining the city's valuable vibes deposits, was trying to get these newfangled inventions called "trash cans" out onto our streets. The plan, to fill street corners with dumpster-like containers that trash trucks can just pick up and empty into their greedy maws, was a rare smart move from the Adams administration — one that car owners loathed, because the bins would encroach on street parking space. Now, the Mamdani administration has made it official: The bins are coming, and they're here to stay.

The Mamdani administration's plan, which covers all five boroughs of the city, will sacrifice nearly 30,000 street parking spots in the name of trash organization. The density of those trash cans diminishes in the outer boroughs, but Manhattan will sport a proper density of trash bins — on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of the island, those bins will take the place of one in 10 street parking spots.

As a freshly-minted Queens resident with parking through my building, I'm not likely to be affected by such changes. But Jalopnik's own Andy Kalmowitz, who regularly street-parks enormous press cars on the Upper East Side, would be directly affected. Andy, for his part, says the change would be "worth it and then some" — he even specified that he "avoid[s] non-main streets after dark because of rats," the exact issue these bins are meant to solve. 

All in all, the move is likely to be a good one for the folks of upper Manhattan. Their trash will be organized, their rats will go hungry (or migrate out to where I live), and all it'll cost them is a bit of extra time spent on alternate-side parking days. Plus, maybe it'll get them out onto the subways more — we'll make regular MTA riders out of those fancy-pants folks yet.