Carr and Anderson debate consumer choice and Staten Island's unique circumstances
Carr argues 21% of Staten Island businesses must find a new carter unnecessarily, and that the bill preserves consumer choice without diminishing CWZ standards. Anderson responds that 79% already use one of the three selected carters, the program was debated for years, and exceptions would invite 'what about me' demands from others.
I think there's no trade-off here between the goals of the authors of the CWZ program and what I'm trying to do here.
Yeah, I think the challenge is that
We have been working to implement this for seven years now, and this bill is getting a hearing on the day that the Staten Island Zone is being implemented.
A full two years plus after these contracts were awarded, a full six years after the RFP was released.
And I think, just to be frank, it is a slippery slope once you start to make exceptions for certain parts of the city or certain carters in a program like this.
I think our concern would be that others would stand up and say, well, what about me?
What about me?
And the commercial waste zone system was designed very, very,
deliberately and carefully by the council and the sanitation department over the course of many, many years in order to build a system that works, that operate, that gives businesses choice.
There are many places across the country, particularly in the South, in Florida, in Texas, in Los Angeles, where businesses only get one choice.
For their hauler.
We specifically said that's not acceptable.
We want to give businesses choice, and today businesses on Staten Island can choose any of those three carters that they want to provide their waste collection services.
And 79% of businesses on Staten Island already use one of those three carters.
So it's really only 21% of businesses on Staten Island that have to pick a new carter.
We're confident that the three carters that are out there today are able to provide very high quality, very low cost services for Staten Island businesses.