Mamdani is creating Dumpsterville in one of NYCs most posh nabes: critics

Upper East Siders are trashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to eliminate nearly 30,000 parking spaces citywide and plunk tens of thousands of massive garbage containers streetside – saying it would turn the posh neighborhood into “Dumpsterville.”The towering, UFO-like metal trash containers – called “Empire Bins” — would line up like “permanent walls” block by block, creating eyesores that would attract graffiti, choke out lighting and potentially cause safety concerns at night, warned Valerie Mason, who chairs Manhattan Community Board 8.“We are concerned about the resulting 24/7 visual blight, and perhaps even more significant than the effect on our quality of life, we are concerned about public safety, especially at night, as ambient light from street traffic, which helps illuminate the sidewalks, may be blocked by these tall and wide non-transparent containers,” wrote Mason in the board’s Aug.7 letter to Sanitation Department officials.Residents “do not want to .

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live in ‘Upper East Dumpsterville,’” added Mason, who demanded the city provide the public extra time to weigh in on the controversial program.The Upper East Side would be the hardest hit neighborhood in the city.CB8 would lose 1,658 – or nearly 10% — of its parking spots to accommodate 3,648 containers, according to a July 1 document outlining the program’s environmental impact. Other street space not used for parking would also accommodate the massive 6-foot-long, 5-foot-wide, 5-foot-tall metal monstrosities.Manhattan’s Community Board 7, which covers the Upper West Side, would lose 1,460 – or 10.3% — of its parking to accommodate 3,211 containers.Combined, both neighborhoods would host 6,859 – or 10.2% — of the projected 66,817 Empire Bins, while 3,118 of the projected 29,842 Big Apple parking spaces slated to be be eliminated through the program would come from the UES and UWS.Empire Bins were first introduced through a 10-block pilot progr...