Blaise Backer testifies on Intro 987 and small-building containerization

Thanks, Chair Sanchez and the committee.

My name is Blaise Backer.

I'm a resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

I'm testifying here on behalf of myself as a resident, but I am a former bid director and a former deputy commissioner at the Department of Small Business Services in the de Blasio administration.

So I'm intimately familiar with some waste management operational aspects at the neighborhood level.

And I wanted to just testify regarding Intro 987 and the efforts of small buildings to do on-street waste containerization.

I live in a four-unit brownstone, and I talked to some of my neighbors in adjoining buildings looking in, since we are part of the pilot and community board, too, in Brooklyn, to do something like this where a bunch of us go in.

And I think as much as I appreciate Sanitation's efforts to open up this opportunity, it is, as Claire alluded to,

pretty onerous to think about, to really organize when we already have our condo boards to organize to really get a bunch of one building to sign on as sort of the maintainer of this bin and the space around it.

So as much as we...

Would get our supers and things to contribute to the cleanliness of the sidewalk, as we already do.

I think it's just a heavy lift to take it beyond that to a formal maintenance agreement.

Likewise, I want to echo a lot of other testimony about not just doing garbage, but to also doing recycling and compost, as I think that would go a long way to actually getting

Some of us more organized and motivated to sort of move in this direction.

And lastly, I do live around the corner from Myrtle Avenue, a busy commercial district.

And, you know, the fact that the residents above the stores have containers all up and down the sidewalks is a real problem for accessibility reasons.

And so I think allowing bids to kind of enter into these agreements with DSNY for residents above the store would be a huge benefit.

So thank you.