:: The Latest :: « Chasing Sanitation

:: Outdoor Exhibition @ Freshkills Park Sneak Peek :: October 2, 2011

If you missed THIS IS NEW YORK’S STRONGEST exhibit this last winter, come on out to FRESHKILLS PARK, STATEN ISLAND. 11A-4PM. It’s FREE & it’s in the WILD!

: Andrew Aspromonte & John Hathaway in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. August 2008

Never Before Seen Prints , More of the SanPeeps You Missed last February. We’re expecting over 2000 folks to come out and bike, canoe, fly some kites and soak up the strength and beauty of the enduring vastness of Sanitation’s work. Just a ferry ride away! Freshkills Park Sneak Peek, Sun., October 2, 2011

Brought to you by our visionary sponsors!

FALL IN LOVE AGAIN …

::: ::: :::

Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 9:53 PM

:: What You Don’t Know by Looking at Them ::

They are family.

They love fast and just want a fair shake.

They chose to take the test. They passed the test. They showed up.

They keep showing up.

They are the oldest green-collared profession.

They see the housing market change, the effect of slumlords and fancy real estate developers.

They feel the Recession happening in throwaway Ikea furniture and forced evictions.

They hate the rain and cold. The rain’s the worst, though.

They know what they do is important.

They recognize you on the street and never expect you to recognize them back.

They have a mercurial wit.

They have problems that they’re working on.

They have problems that they’ve gotten through.

They have this job that helps them to keep their lives together.

They have more racial and off-color jokes than Richard Pryor and Bob Saget put together.

They have psychology degrees.

They have been to art school.

They are in school now.

They’re thinking about their retirement now.

They are practicing their bag pipes now.

They have not always gotten their due.

They have not always been lucky or made the best choices.

They have fathers and grandfathers who have seen worse, less respected days at the job.

They have books they’ve written and published.

They have plays they’ve written and produced.

They have bands they play in and Harleys they ride through the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

They have photos in their phones of the collection truck, locker room pranks, Derek Jeter and their children.
They show up at the funeral for a coworker who lost a spouse.

They have wives and girlfriends they’d do anything for.

They have sons and daughters that they wish they were better parents for.

They have friends at work to remind them why they do what they do.

They have people that give them hell for not being a doctor, lawyer or banker.

They have kids that wanted nothing more than to ride in the truck.

They have regret for lives lived outside the work.

They have kids, dogs and old men in the neighborhood that look forward to their arrival the same time every Monday morning.

They have mothers that drive them nuts.

They have sick wives that they take to the doctor all the time.

They have better halves.

They lost too many fellow Sanitation Workers to stupid accidents on the route. A name on a building will never be enough, but they’ll take it. And they’ll remember.

They have seen combat days in all the wars in recent memory.

They took this job because they got their girlfriend pregnant.

They took this job because some guy left when they said they were pregnant.

They miss the New York before Giuliani. Life was more fun, and you wouldn’t get arrested for hot-wiring a street lamp for a dance party. Sure, it’s safer, but it’s a little sterile. Yep, that’s right – they miss a dirtier New York.

They hit on my friends now, because my friends are no longer looking away when they pass a Sanitation Worker on the way to the train.

They hate bureaucracy but believe in the union.

They just want to keep moving and then do nothing but sit on the beach or on the porch in the sun.

They are the brawny receptacles of New York’s stories and streets.

In their minds are our histories and secrets.

In their muscles, the weight of our lives destroyed, discarded and discontinued.

In their hearts, quiet, simple hope.

They are the caretakers of all we let go.

And they’re not perfect.

But their hearts and minds are full and passionate.

And THEY ARE STRONG.

::: ::: :::

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 1:32 AM

:: The City's Strength ::, :: The Latest ::

16 Comments »

:: MayDay MayDay – Now What? ::

Monday, May 2, 2011. 1:40am.

Around 11pm on MayDay/May 1, 2011, it was announced to the world that Osama bin Laden had been killed. By Americans. The President confirmed it. Now regular TV network programming has resumed.

But tomorrow? What happens next?

It’s now two hours into watching more Facebook newsfeed than TV coverage. I don’t need CNN. Don’t want Tom Ridge or Napolitano or Bloomberg to tell me what’s going on. What I really need is to hear from Sanitation Workers of New York.

William Holmes at roll call, Bronx 8 Garage

So, Sanitation Workers – tell us.

What does this mean for New York?

Now. Tomorrow. For you. For your job. For your family. For my neighborhood. Tell me what this means to you, a New Yorker.

Post your comments here or email lisa@chasingsanitation.com.

I learned New York through talking to all of you. Keep talking … we’re still listening.

… and as always, thanks for all you do.

::: ::: :::

A few of the responses posted within minutes of my posting on Facebook. So many of us up and on Facebook …

High alert, and a lot of expert analysis
May 2 at 1:19am

:::

Still gotta watch our backs just a little more.
May 2 at 3:26am

:::

He is just one man… there are still many other wicked people out there. Must always remain on alert.
May 2 at 4:34am

:::

Hi Lisa , its means one less piece of trash we have to worry about .
May 2 at 6:54am

:::

a little bit of closeure.
May 2 at 5:37pm

:::

::: ::: :::

Monday, May 2nd, 2011 at 1:48 AM

:: This is New York’s Strongest ::

Final Weekend of Exhibition! 4pm-9pm: Friday through Sunday, February 25-27

Who’s Writing & Talking About This is New York’s Strongest
New York Times – February 10, 2011
NY1 News – February 11, 2011
NY Daily News – February 15, 2011
NBC New York Non-Stop with Chuck Scarborough – February 22, 2011

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

Through the pens and lenses of writer/producer Lisa Dowda and photographer Liz Ligon, THIS IS NEW YORK’S STRONGEST reveals in arresting, intimate images and compelling storytelling the wit, passion and compassion, history and family that make up the Sanitation Workers of New York.

On View February 15-27

It took one shoot to fall in love.
It only took 2 ½ years to get this date on Valentine’s Weekend.
But oh, what a date … come fall in love:
For more information: info@chasingsanitation.com

THIS IS NEW YORK’S STRONGEST is made possible with the generous support of these sponsors:

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 12:51 PM

NYC blizzard: Feds open criminal probe into alleged city worker conspiracy during storm response

11 Comments »

:: Blizzard of 2010 … and New York’s Strongest Facebook Newsfeed ::

Begun on Dec. 26, 2010 … 10 Days and Counting

Perhaps this SanMan says it best:

i swear to u this days..ur words have slain me within, i shall turn from u, and u shall never sense my shadow..i declare it , and we both know its so!

For now, the drama’s died down a little. Well, let’s just say there aren’t three press conferences a day. But there are predictions of half of foot of snow for the weekend and metered parking is back and the trash bags are piled car-high on the curb and it’s Day 10. The slowdown investigations are gearing up, and I’m catching some flack.

I don’t care.

This is a part of Sanitation.

What does it take for any of us to make it to work …? There’s always more than meets the eye. There’s someone worried about one of his brothers going in for medical tests, there’s another guy that just keeps cracking heads to keep his fellow green collars’ anger at bay, there’re single moms missing hair appointments, and we’ve lost the Atkins Diet’s frustrated updates, so I guess he’s made it through New Year’s Carb Withdrawal.

Showing up for work for the tenth 14-hour day straight, taking the incessant media-stoked expletives of the Public and resisting bagels – That’s New York’s Strongest.

Another Brooklyn SanMan says of the New York Daily News article about the slowdown investigation:

the truth is that our union local 831 in june asked the mayor that we needed to hire 400 new guys before the winter but the mayor only gave us 100 new guys we were very short handed for this kind of storm.no way in hell was there any kind of slow down, we also have familys that were on the roads that day

“no way in hell was there any kind of slow down, we also have familys that were on the roads that day”

Let’s not lose perspective. SanFolks will keep telling the truth.

City Council Hearing on Monday, January 10.

Spend some time with their Facebook Status Updates – they’re still soooooo good. I’ve edited out all gastronomical reports, just so you know.

:::

The latest:

They started today in the districts. The called the supers and wanted to know how many officers came to work and how many went sick.

**** em.

**** em is right

tired of all this bull …

Then a SanMan comes in to stop the grousing –

STOP KEEP YOUR DEDICATION FOR THIS JOB GOING…NO MATTER WHAT

New York Daily News posted a poll on that same article:

Do you think city workers intentionally slowed down cleanup efforts during the blizzard?

19% Yes, they are a bunch of overtime hogs who paralyzed the city with their greed.
61% No, the storm was tremendous, no city would have been completely prepared.
19% …It was just a snowstorm, it’s not a big deal.

I posted it as my Facebook Status Update. Below is the resulting conversation:

5 like this.

… Thanks for posting this!! So how come/whyfore/WHAT IS UP with the media playing the DSNY for fools and malooks, bad guys and ne’er-do-wells?!

… the truth is that our union local 831 in june asked the mayor that we needed to hire 400 new guys before the winter but the mayor only gave us 100 new guys we were very short handed for this kind of storm.no way in hell was there any kind of slow down, we also have familys that were on the roads that day

Lisa Dowda ‎: !! So true …

…‎100 USELESS NEW GUYS NOT THERE FAULT …I ENJOYED TEACHING SOME OF THEM

Lisa Dowda : RIGHT, …. they have to fill the paper and newscast with something …. even the people on the street interviews are weak … you can attack the SanMan or SanWoman on the street but how do you indict a municipal system in a 90 second tv segment?

… ASK THE POST THEY ARE PRETTY GOOD AT ACTING LIKE THE INQUIRER

… Poor new guys came it at the worst time but I told one today If u can get through this U will b a pro for the next one. I’d rather come in during snow then in the summer when all is nice and smooth

… THE MAYOR AND DM ARE THROWING THE FOCUS OFF THEMSELVES

Lisa Dowda : J – I saw you the other day working the snow removal on 6th Avenue and 45th …

… the fact that city hall is even entertaining the thought that there was a slow down disgusts me

… i had this new kid that started that monday doing his o.j.t with me in a v- plow that day was his first day on the job this poor kid did great

Lisa Dowda : … this is why Sanitation is the political football it is. this is one of the many reasons driving this whole project for me – so easy to blame the people doing the work. that and all of you crack me up regularly.

…I WOULD LIKE YOU TO ASK THE DEPUTY MAYOR ONE QUESTION FOR ME ….HOW DO YOU COME IN AND RIP APART A AGENCY WITHOUT KNOWING HOW IT WORKS?… I ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER HES AN IDIOT AND LIVES WERE LOST DUE TO HIS INCOMPETENCE/ EGO

… the doctored up “anonymous source” “slowdown” was probably cooked up by the deputy mayor to 1) put a blackeye on us sanworkers n create leverage for his “union busting”I..2) get the mayor off the hook

Lisa Dowda : I hear ya…

… thank you lisa great post !!!!!!

Lisa Dowda : Wow – that’s some conspiracy theorizing…. that’s why I say about the Feds – go, investigate. Bring it on.

The Updates as of 930pm

Blah Blah Blah…… Sanitation sucks……. Blah Blah Blah…….. Job Action……… Blah Blah Blah……..Well its my turn. Thank you Brothers and Sisters of D.S.N.Y. Thank you for your sacrafices during the holiday seasons. Thank you for the endless hours you have put in instead of spending the holidays with your family. Thank you for your dedication to KICKING MOTHER NATURES ASS!!!!!!

… If it makes you feel any better ~ I fed the Guy … that was stuck in his truck outside my house for over12 hours ~ He shared my daughters bday dinner with us ! lmao And the guy that came at 12 am to releive him – We gave that guy cake and coffee ! The City left these guys for dead and They said they were NOT allowed to leave the trucks THANKS NYC ~

… well said brother………

… I TOOK YR POST

… Thank ypou Joe. For the comment and the dedication Joe Public is to blind to see!

… Its our post Brother!!!

… Well said brother! !!!

… Mother Nature One Day Will Win. . . . but not today!

… Not as long as DSNY continues to wear the GREEN with pride!!!!

Man this is the week from hades…do i really need help from the weak, and guidance from a fool..I think not..Thank God for patience..imma go smash this steel, and let this frustration out b4 i hurt somebody..thank you all for ur support, and my co-workers for their help..they get me thru ! peace be still ! huggzz

With my princess at the hair salon getting her hair done 8 days of neglect on her poor hair Bad mommy

More Snow – Friday and Saturday – Lets see how the city handles this one,,,

9 hour ‘nap’…. now what the hell day is it??

Please, Lord, let me prove that winning the lottery won’t spoil me…

There’s a SanMan reposting a Washington Post article about current religious strife in Pakistan:

Ass backwards. Hardcore third world.

Both sides in blasphemy case pressure Zardari

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Pakistan’s president faced mounting pressure Thursday to weigh in on the fate of a Christian woman recently sentenced to death for blasphemy, a case that has drawn the attention of the Vatican and sparked street protests in this Muslim-majority nation.

Starting to loose track of the days.

DAY 10

Id like to clarify something…The New York City Sanitation Department was not on a city-wide slowdown during the storm. We have a mayor and deputy mayor who is trying to save money at all cost and it back-fired…plain and simple. Dont blame us san-man for decisions city hall makes and if you believe that rag..the NY Post…you also believe in fairytales and unicorns!

6 people like this.

… Wait unicorns aren’t real?

… Yea and Luke Perry is gay

… And Michael Jackson wasnt a pedephile

… Yah, And I’m half Puerto Rican and half Chinese

… What???? NO UNICORNS ?…but we still got SANTA n the EASTER BUNNY ….Right????.

…i knew my brother was a chino…he snot rockets like no other

Guess who’s still at work

Good night all. One of my brothers from work will be under going sone medical testing tomorrow. Please keep him in your thoughts. Good luck Bro. Talk to you on Wednesday.

… hope hes ok. I know thts stressful when family is Hurtin.

… my prayers are with you, pal

… good luck to your brother i hope all is well we will pray for him.

… Thanks all. It’s one of my brothers in green.

First night of garbage pickup since before Xmas….have no fear, ur friendly neighborhood garbagemen are here

And in a shout-out to my former employer, this is how they handle a slow news day –

TMZ — Paralyzed by California Snow Day | TMZ.com

After thumbing our nose at the East Coast for an entire week … Karma has blasted through the TMZ office like an arctic wind — and today we have two L.A.-based employees who can’t get to work because of ice and snow. Look for an earthquake to hit NYC sometime next week.

:::

… last updated 1.4.10, 12am

The snow is melting – it’s a mess, here. Of course, no denying it. But just think too – in a city of 8 million people – how many thrown out, non-composted Christmas trees is that? And the garbage mountains rise above the cars, and New Years Eve’s been cleaned up and now – they’re predicting more snow for the weekend. So the 16 tons of garbage that just one truck does a day and garbage hasn’t been picked up since a week ago and Christmas wrapping and food cans and carcasses and oh my god, the mind explodes with the double / triple amount of everything that Sanitation’s got in front of them for the next week. You know they’re doing the math.

And there’s still fingerpointing to City Hall.
And there’s a man trying to kill himself by jumping out his 9th story building and landing on the unpicked up garbage that everyone’s griping about. Garbage saved his life.
And there’s just general staying in touch.
And there’s a SanMan remembering his passed on father today.
And there’s still chops being busted on Facebook.
And there’s Sunday Night Football rhetoric.

Read on …

IT IS WHAT IT IS !!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE THIS SAYING

Happy Birthday Dad…I miss you. R.I.P

… Good man!! I worked many times with him on the truck back in the day!

… Happy Bday Big Gee ..

Can’t help but feel something is missing?!?!?!

Yeah, a day off.

is working with his best buddy Brian …!

… awww…i have a tear in my eye…what a bromance

… the entire 7pm crew at bk 7 must be completely jealous.

Although the Giants are out of the Playoffs, it would be nice if they hold on for the win and win 10 games. To be honest there were too many missed opportunities on the Giants part and they should have taken care of business 2 weeks ago.

One of the SanMen posted photos of the snow removed from a public school in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

SNOW January 2, 2011
25 new photos
Is this where u went to school or u showing us more clean up?

BOTH

That’s what happens when I work 12 hour shifts every night, I get delirious and 2 week cruises to Italy, Spain and France get booked. Hurry up September !!!!

driving over the Verrazanno Bridge there is a cruise ship going somewhere warm. wish I was on it.

all that garbage serves a purpose

Garbage breaks suicide jumper’s fall

Yawwwwwnnn! It’s feeling like that movie ‘Groundhog Day’. 85 hours….but NO Taquitos from 7-Eleven!!

85 Hr work week coming to an end & we get to do it all over again tomorrow. Lucky us!

Ok, it’s 2011…Where the hell is my jet pack?

:::

… last updated 1:15pm, January 2, 2010

For a little while, it seems that the D of DSNY has become Delirious Sanitation in New York. After 88 hour work weeks for some, the Status Updates have devolved from political ranting to the SanEquivalent of IVillage Diet Talk. SanMen and their friends counseling each other how to survive the Atkins Diet while working 14 hours shifts to congratulating one’s own self for not flipping out on an angry civilian, SanMen and Women still can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel – not just yet.

So in the interim … Please forgive the loose editing on the expletives … some of these crack me up.

My Brain be fried.

… mine 2

… that sucks, i feel great.

… hang in there …

… I didn’t even know u had one..My bad…((Hehe))

CARB WITHDRAWL…I FORGOT ABOUT THIS…!

Oh … I hate that! … You’re body rips through anything and eveything… You’re brain is like … bring on the motherf*****n Bagles dammitttt ahhhhhggghhhh!!! And you’re like eff you brain and you’re brains like oh yeah?? Eff you too… I will make you miserable!! And your stomache is like a lost child whose parents are going through terrible perhaps violent divorce… It doesn’t know what’s going on but it’s like stomping it’s feet and being rebellious and moody and…. S*** dude…

It’s 7 am I have no one to talk to sry

Lmao I k ow I tried to cut carbs out once I just dint succeed >.<

i wanna eat everything in sight…my body is f***** up…lmao

carbs…they are the bitch…i love them unfortunately…lmao

i did it though….give it 4 days…youll suceed

I did it four years ago I lost over 100 pounds! just be careful when you start taking carbs again. The weight comes back quick…. yeah I know after a couple of good snowshifts your body is craving the absolute most garbage food for it to feel normal again

Not Again I need a day to sleep!!!!

its day what ever!!!!!!! I M totally shot

93 hour work week almost complete. I’ve lost all sanity. No end in sight..

Anyone want to meet me for a drink @ 6am? Lol. Im getting out of work at that time.

I would love to but I need to rearrange my sock drawer

Happy Birthday Pop. I cant believe you’re gone 15 years this year. My mission is to be the man you knew I could be. I love you and miss you everyday pop. Rest in Peace.

Work

worked 88 hrs this week…jesus…i better love my paycheck or imma be pissed!

I got ya beat by 1 hour.

6 to 8 inches on Friday…I guess I ain’t seeing yous guys for a while…

Atkins Day 1. Im not going to stop until I hit 240…unless its St. Paddys Day and Im not there yet…Happy New Years People…the future is looking ever so bright!

TOM IS SUNDAY???? !#$@% I FEEL LIKE I CAME OFF A RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn I truly didn’t know today was Saturday I’m working way tooo much. I need a break!!!! uhhhh tomorrow another 12 hours I’m sooo tired!!!

Bloomberg’s Snow(Plow) Job
“You can never count on the privates, because they don’t have to show up. What obligation do they have? The mayor can’t order them out. The commissioner can’t order them out.”

OH DAMN my neck and my back Y did I just forget I’m driving a garbage truck with a plow on it

:::

… last updated December 31, 2010, 11:45pm

Perhaps it’s Mike (one of many SanMikes) said it best:

All this snow talk this week …. what’s Lindsay Lohan been up to?

Happy New Year to All of Your Strong Folks Out There …

In a Facebook message from another Mike in Queens:

Q6 was good today, Rego Park area. We were shoveling Cross-walk, bus stops, hydrants, and opening up drains. 12 hrs. Many people thanked us.

and the last Facebook status updates for 2010:

12 hour shift with PRIDE..for everyone that believes the media slandering us..what strike? Haven’t seen my family since xmas eve..and won’t for another week..so don’t believe everything u hear..we are new yorks strongest and there should have been a state of emergency to get cars and buses off the road so we could actually get to the streets..be safe enjoy new years fb fam!

Working for New Years…I hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday tonight. Have a drink for me. HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

You too brotha. and no matter what anyone says if it wasn’t for you guys busting your a** nobody would be able to get out and celebrate.

Happy New Year! I’ve enjoyed many a beverage. But I’ll enjoy one more for you! Be safe and even though I’m no longer in NY, my family still is so thanks for what you do!!!!

2010 was the year I hit rock bottom. 2011 is the year I rise from the ashes and prove my doubters wrong. 2011 – The re-birth of yours truely!

2011 the year of BIG SEXY

my brothers in arms, I salute you or your fortitude, wisdom and strength. And for your tireless and unrecognized dedication…may God bless you all, and Happy new year

happy new year, i will be shoveling crosswalks for the night,yippie,enjoy and stop the bitching about the snow

i really need a 10 hour night of sleep.

happy newyear to all my friends, family and all my DSNY brothers and sisters that are out there breaking there ass for this city.

Happy new years everyone..stuck at work till 7am have drinks for me

Happy new year to all my friends, family & extended family. A BIG shout out to all my brothers & sisters at DSNY, we’re still working & will be ringing in the new year fighting the streets. Be careful & God bless you all

Happy New Years to all of my friends!!! Be safe!

Small DSNY secret: the plow is raised because of too much snow that has to be skimmed, ice that can make you crash into cars and such. By the way, happy new year

Stories are coming out now about people dying, and a newborn too, because of emergency crews not being able to get to them. Amazingly, the story of my best friend trying to escort an ambulance to Luthetan hospital for 2 hours with his spreader remains unknown. Then you get the j*******s who open their stupid mouths and talk of a slowdown.

When all of you are kissing your wives and hugging your children I’ll be clearing snow so you can get down your block safely tonight So I guess my family will just have to settle for a phone call but they understand why….. But guess what I’ll be with the best bunch of people I could think of at midnight. MY DSNY FAMILY. Happy new year!!

To all my Family and Friends, I hope you all have a happy, healthy and safe New Years!!!!

LEAVING CAPS LOCK ON UNTIL 2011

Shutting it down for a few hours. A special Happy New Year wish to the miserable old fart walking down the middle of Union Turnpike at 430am who gave me the finger. Nice shirt by the way.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON F/B

Happy new year to all my friends and family!!

Today is new years eve, the last day of the month, the last day of the year, the last year of the the decade so make it last and party like it’s your last day! Have fun and be safe.. And don’t drink and drive because you might hit a bump and spill it on yourself!!!!

News flash from the PIX 11 Whining News… garbage is piling up after a snowstorm. Is that something newsworthy? It’s happened before thus it’s old, not ‘News’.
All this snow talk this week …. what’s Lindsay Lohan been up to?

BUON ANNO ! happy new year !

:::

… last updated, 11am, December 30, 2010 …

There’s Sanitation and plows and politics. Rumors of slowdowns, Mayor Doomberg blame is mounting, tertiary politicians are grandstanding. The Media pulls the paper tiger routine on the politicians and union leaders. The Public roars on the street at the Sanitation Workers. It’s citizen on citizen, corporate entity on municipal monolith. So much anger in the snow … And buried deep in the night (and in these updates) are kids missing their parents, reports of cheap tire chains, lots of lousy coffee, and one SanWoman looking up into the sky and thinking about falling in love in 2011.

Let’s not lose perspective.

Keep asking questions, keep talking and we’re on our way to figuring out why this storm froze the City of New York.

The snow’s begun melting. There’s so much garbage piling up on the sidewalks. And there’s the massive post-New Years Eve and Times Square cleaning just a couple of days away. It ain’t over for a couple more weeks.

Keep kickin’ it, DSNY, and keep perspective, All of Us.

And keep looking up.

:::

If Dsny was in a slow down you would know.. It would much worse then this we would still be doing our primary streets..

I told Marty Markowitz where u live.

Lol yeah is that why the channel 2 news helicopter is over my house? I’m serious it is foe 20 minutes now

Nice, more pressure. Now everyone is gonna try and grandstand for the mayor instead of doing their thing. Also, the truth is slowly coming out. OEM, MTA and others dropped the big one

LocalWireless.com
Mayor to take five-borough tour to check plowing

New York Daily News
Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and his flaky ideas doom New York during storm

The Real Reason Why The Blizzard Crippled the City!!!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SLOWDOWN!!!!! I REPEAT SANITATION IS NOT SLOWING DOWN, we drive with our plows up slightly on un-plowed blocks because if we dont we will get stuck, and we drive with our plows slightly up on plowed blocks beause we cant plow blacktop …!!!

Well this about says it all…. he wasn’t even in town!!!!!!!!!!

New York Post
Sanitation Department’s slow snow clean-up was a budget protest

The Moon and the planet Venus I hope that means I will find LOVE!!! This yr

Dead man plowing :/

WHAT DAY IS IT??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

What year is it? Still 2010 or is it 2011 yet?

how much longer are you guys on for? I asked Joe and he grunted at me :/ He said people are so angry and were throwing shovels at them, blocking plows and refusing to let then through unless their block was plowed and yelling at them. I feel so bad for you guys. Hang in there.

72 Drive …. Saved!!!!!!!

Wishes I was near retirement…

You digith your car out…. I plowith it back in…. MUWAAHAAHAAHAA >:)

im on like 3 cups of coffee…lol…and im really not bad…i just daydream about being an a******…lol

If you guys want to know why the streets were not plowed it’s because the mayor is cutting back on spending and this year he decided to buy cheaper thinner snow chain that break and don’t do anything.. Thats why we keep getting stuck and have to pull eachother out.. Sunday night we were all stuck.. So say thank you mr bloomberg

That’s right the are more than half the size of the old ones and as of yesterday they have gone through more chains in this storm than in the last 3yrs with the old ones.

Well while everyone is celebrating New Years I will be working 12 hours OH and for the ones that are knocking Sanitation hug ur kids tell them u love them Because I haven’t seen my daughter in 3 days and I sure would love a hug right now. Just spoke to her before I go 2 sleep and she said while joking “what is ur name again” So tell me again how bad are ur streets!?!

If nobody else tells DSNY Thank You, I’ll be the first. You’re appreciated. It takes a whole village to keep the village running and I appreciate the choice you guys made to keep it clean and safe for us. Kniowing some of your colleagues have lost their lives doing this work. Work hard but work safe.

I appreciate ur line of duty n ya co workers also. Thank You … Thumbs up……….I couldn’t ask for any better

Xxxx

Come on up! My daughter is out, and my hubby can watch my son..lol…plowing was pretty good up here BUT I know how hard it is in the city..people can’t let you do your job, where the hell are they going in a blizzard?? I remember how nuts people would get over parking spots on my old block…unreal

You know what … people always have something to say when they’re not the ones in charge of doing the work. If they’re really that concerned, they’ll go buy a shovel and dig themselves out. Some of my teens got their shovels and made some money digging. This is an entreprenurial country, go make some bread instead of complaining. LMBO

What about the 22 year old from bk, who lost her baby? If they wanna point fingers then I’m all for it…..Especially when its Good workers like my girl busting her ass n not being able to spend it with her baby…….Don’t get me started I will start the press conference NOW!!!!!!!

‎

I miss my daughter. I said gdnite to her on the phone n she cried n said “I don’t wanna stay w mommy anymore. daddy come get me I wanna go to work w u

Lol Thank U Ladys I love my Job but I hate when it snows because I just can’t make everyone happy When it comes to garbage its easy U put ur garbage out go to sleep wake up and bamm it gone but It snows and now u want to look for me lol

‎”F” the media!!! We getting it done, all day, everyday, until the snow is gone!!

I can’t wait to post the pics of the mountains of garbage that awaits us after 12 hour shifts with no days off and Joseph I fell asleep so maybe tonight I will wait by the snow melter for that hug lol

Been fueling up on coffee and iced tea…wish I had some more snow to break free…I’ve been working thru for 3 damn nights…

so tired from 14 + hrs shifts…this is killing me…but again my hats off to the brave and bold sanitation, fighting cold, sleeplessness,fatigue, insults, and the like just to do a most important task… I thank God for his strength and oversight..Ps thank the mayor for his ignorance, carelessness, and foolish tongue..he is really making a name for himself .lol

Sick and tired of people talking bad….I gave a mouthful to people at the bus stop today….set them right

I’m curious if the fallout from this storm will go something like this: Bloomberg will pretend to take the blame while dodging any actual analysis of what went wrong; DSNY will get tagged by rumors of a work slowdown that will stick because people will wonder why the plows weren’t running immediately; the public will be angry without admitting that, well, maybe we should’ve stayed off the streets after all; and out o ….. Friggin’ FB cut off my rant! The last part was: …and out of all of this will come, surprise, the argument by interested parties that this is proof we should privatize the snow removal infrastructure.

Day 4 of ‘Operation Save the World’

Almost time to get ready. I saw my family for about an hour

nyc deputy mayor stephen goldsmith … go back to indianapolis because you have no idea what you are doing and you have ruined the reputation of the nyc sanitation dept.

When This is all over I’m pretty sure Bloomy is gonna give him a one way ticket back to Indy

I am looking to trade the night shift at Q9; I will plow the street, you take the girls.. Anyone?

alternate side parking AND meters suspended the rest of the week….. a holiday gift to the taxpayers from Bloomberg and Goldsmith

New Yorkers r so spoiled its so sad for the media and the public to knock DSNY Let’s see what’s next will u b pissed because ur garbage is not being picked up Oh well because that’s not gonna happen until the snow gone buddy hehehe If anyone thinks they can do it better hit me up I got an extra uniform u can wear and I’m sure by the end of the day u will b signing a new tune and the media can go kick rocks!!!

I help maybe 4 people a night get unstuck I figure that’s some people that hopefully will think differently when they hear DSNY getting bad talk.

NYers have nothing else to do but sit in their nice cozy homes!

people don’t say anything when we do good and … u know it the public sees us take our 30 min break on a 12 hour shift and they have a fit smh

You should start your own reality tv show in that vain. Name it, ” A Walk in my shoes.” Get that to a producer before someone steals the idea; )

whole dept needs a show lol

have to say my brothers and sisters in DEPT OF SANITATION ARE DOING A GOOD JOB OUT THERE.

I’m a little tired today

You should be working like a maniac. Get your rest on. You deserve it; )

Feeling like crap… congested, horrible cough and 101 temperature……sticker on my head reads “OUT OF ORDER”

Has the office been flooded with calls asking if we’re picking up garbage yet?

oh, we weren’t suppose to put the garbage out??

They picked mine up yesterday.

Another 12 hour overnight in the books. Sunset Park looks 10 times better… More 12 hr plus days to come.

plowwwinnn!

I miss sleep…

Thanks, my friends, 4 the support, the bashing got old real fast

SEND COOKIES! LMAO! Ok, back to work…Ciao!

More cookies??? LOL I sent 9 dozen in last week! and a sheet cake this week…man you guys get hungry when it snows!!! But I will do my best for you…You guys deserve it with all the flack you are getting. Well know that at least you have one fan who knows how hard our men and women of the NYDS are working.
(Oh I made … cinnamon scones today…see if you can get him to bring you one!)

:::

… last updated, 11 pm, December 28, 2010 …

Was just cursed out by a guy blaming me for all the snow. I said “Yea I made it snow!! Just for you tomorrow I will make it sunny and 80 degrees”. Then he got out of his car to yell at me and he fell. I laughed in his face. he left

Our new plows that just came in to open up the streets

everyone wants to blame the sanitation, the guys out in the street are trying there best. you need to thank the way way higher ups for this, so put your middle fingers down and pick up the phone and call Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and give him…

Nobody understands that we got over 2 feet of snow.. It takes time to clear it be patient

An FYI for NYC: everyone I’ve talked to in the DSNY is bone-tired from 12- and 13- and even 15-hour shifts. No one is dogging the work. Among the many factors that the public doesn’t know: every snow storm is unique, and therefore every response is something of a crap shoot, no matter how well prepared the city is ahead of time.

Just used the bathroom @ Afternoon’s on Forest ave and the girls behind the bar and the owner thanked me for plowing their streets and doing a great job…..it made me feel really good n proud!

lasagna for breakfast anybody?

All of this blizzard talk is getting old….. on a lighter note…… Dad, 47, in Germany castrates man, 57, for dating 17-year-old daughter: cops

I hope this blizzard doesn’t destroy my New Year’s Day plans ….. Honeymooners marathon and the ‘Winter Classic’…. lol
gonna start round three with snow wish us luck

Plow plow plow

To all that hate on the DSNY… Keep hating… We love yous.

loves a SanMan.

@$&& all these people who say that the men and woman of this job suck Or are pissed because there block has not been plowed This is on you mayor and dept mayor. We bust our ass to make you look good but you have cut us off at the knees lack of manpower and quality equipment

sleep need lots of sle…zzzzzzzzzzz

I have to clear this up for the public This was a BLIZZARD not a regular snow storm. We had to get to the main roads before the side street Secondary and Tertiarty streets will b done today. If u feel u could have done a better job They are hiring for day laborers Until then move out my way so I can do my job!!

Actual 311 call?? Yes my name is jerkoff jerkovitz and my block hasn’t been plowed yet. I pulled my car out during the blizzard for s**** and giggles buy it got stuck and I left it in the middle of the block. The sanitation workers are useless!!!

People STAY OFF THE ROADS!!!! Let DSNY do our jobs and plow the streets, we are working around the clock, if you need extra money and want to be a snow laborer, go to your nearest sanitation garage for more info.

workin trielessly to free the roads of snow, with my boys in green .>>>big up sanitation…doing great jobs with a few people, and broken machinery…thanks city hall for firing guys and not rehiring,,,job well done thanx to you..at this rate, this winter nyc will be called iceland

Cars everywhere 86th st.

your welcome van brunt st

Break out the “V” plows

Just worked 14 hours, its sleep time for this san man!

:::

… last updated at 7pm, December 27, 2010 …

HEYYY the firemen asked me if I was ok Yes cuties I’m just fine lmao!!!!

Hey I’m a lady I can’t pee on the side of the truck can I get a bathroom break someone come and get me PLEASE lol!!!!

Thanks to Senator Kruger for saying there were no plows or spreaders out in Canarsie, Georgetown or Mill Basin last night. Couldn’t be further from the truth, but I guess that’s what political windbags are supposed to say when sanitation has difficulty fighting a massive storm.

Working in the garage doing plows n chains!!! Hahahahahaha

All our equipment is out in the streets, we need more manpower …

u guys are starting to work like longshoremen now lol

the reason why he didnt get you guys more manpower is because school is not in session. He is crazy obsessed with the kids getting to school and no snow days. If school was in session the sanitation would have more man power. gr

Lol … we still don’t have enough men on the job, guys retire and they don’t hire. … we are working like longshoremen ahahahahaha

I’m not a loser I can’t lose I have to clear these streets ughhh!!!!!!

… don’t let the media tell u we not doing it we r trying this blizzard hit us hard

I no … N I’m grateful for you guys!!

Thank U

Yo go girl & who said females cnt do it um hello “Fe-Male” lmfao …

just be safe out there!…FOR REAL!

we got stuck because we werent able to maneuver around the public and too much time lapsed. overnight, 3 inches an hour fell…when im stuck behind some [car] for 30 to 45 minutes a clip…the snow got to be too much to handle. I sat in gridlock on 63rd and 8th avenue from 215 this morning til someone had to relieve me at 11am. They had to walk from 60th and 5th cause sunset park was at a standstill…it was unbelievable

Getting ready to go back to work…DAMN..I feel like a Coney Island hooker on a two for the price one special..

DSNY + BLIZZARD = POWER…! But we know who always wins in the end. As you rescue the entire city (yet again!), everybody stay safe out there…!

:::

Monday, December 27, 2010

The snow started in the afternoon the day after Christmas.

My Facebook Newsfeed started buzzing late on Christmas Day with Status Updated yelps of “yippee$” and bellyaching about getting the call to work. That’s par for the course – it’s both – “yahoo!” and “&8%$!!” for Sanitation when it snows.

It’s a lot of things for one of the Strongest Municipal Snow Machines in the world today, managing the Blizzard of 2010. While I’m posting this, all City Officials are in the middle of a televised press conference explaining how the strong winds are making everybody’s job impossible and how much an inch of snow costs the City.

A Big Apple ThunderSnow Blizzard costs a lot of things.

It’s long dangerous nights of keeping the main thoroughfares clear. It’s money in the pocket of Sanitation Workers and out of the pocket of taxpayers. It’s spouses and children hoping their dads, mothers, uncles, aunts and cousins are warm and safe. It’s snow chains and mechanics and salt garages and storage facilities. It’s supervisors and Commissioners and Union leaders on the phone constantly with each other, strategizing on how the plows, salt trucks and man/womanpower are spent and sent and when, where and how fast and how long. It’s getting stuck going to work, at work, going home from work. It’s sleeping overnight in your office if you’re Deputy Commissioner Vito Turso or in an ambulance if you’re SanMan Charlie. It’s fielding any and every SanMan or Super or SanWoman’s phonecall and a lot of lousy coffee if your Jimmy Parker at the Local 831. It’s current political and structural struggles with budget cutbacks and reassignments and cut pay and overpay and the wind is gusting up to 40mph and making everyone miserable.

This is “snowrgasmic tandemonium!!” as one SanMan posted.

Here are other selections from my SanFacebook friends’ postings. A range of worry, pride, morale boosting and messages to the public.

… last updated at 2:10 pm, December 27, 2010 …

FUN FUN FUN!

The General Public Sucks! You know we’re getting hit with a blizzard … Did you think that your 1992 Cutlass Supreme with front wheel drive was going to beat two feet of snow … and now because your stuck … I get to wait 4 u to dig out … another 6 inches falls and 1/3 of our equipment is waiting for you. Bottom Line: Snow Storm = Stay Home

It was a snowrgasmic tandemonium!!

14 hours on the plow … Good thing insomnia and psychosis are my pre-existing conditions ; )

My Fb Fam sorry if the streets r bad we are trying our best

Leave your cars at home today, folks. Let New York’s Strongest clear all that snow.

I dunno if I can even make it to work…But lets thank NYC dept of sanitation for doin extraordinary things with ordinary people … write [the Mayor] and inform him of our part in saving this city..we are an emergency service. God has made it show…I thank Him with all my heart !

Time for some REAL ice road truckin’!!

B careful out there. One of my relatives is stranded in her MTA bus.

My hats off to nyc sanitation … who were called on xmas day to come to work at 6 am sharp and do 12-16 hrs str8 work..no excuses, all blood and sacrifice … i am honored to worked with the men and women who do the hard labor and fight the cold, haet and danger … with lil regard for self, and lil honor, we fight the good fight !

I’m stuck and can’t get out. asked how long before help was told hopefully today. feel like one of those chilen miners.

Someone plow my block!!!! This sanitation worker needs to get to work!!!

What a $&@”en night

Wow its bad out.

Nearing a record. 293 emails today. Guess how many were about snow.

THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE ON THE ROAD ARE THE BIG WHITE TRUCKS WITH THOSE ORANGE THINGS ATTACHED TO THE FRONT … GET OFF THE ROAD …!!!! YOUR PREVENTING ME FROM DOING MY JOB!! UN…BELIEVABLE

Please stay inside people, I’m gonna plow over you

Didn’t they tell you people to stay home?????

Good night to my DSNY Fam working 7pm shift b safe out there and someone pick me up @6 I’m going to 9 tomorrow thanks

BLIZZZZARD!! Go DSNY!

No probelmo. Becareful out there if you go out. I heard it’s going to come down pretty hard.

Blizzard conditions tonight. 2,400 Sanitation Workers, 365 salt spreaders, 1,700 snow plows, 180,000 tons of rock salt. Go New York’s Strongest!!!

My hats off to nyc sanitation…who were called on xmas day to come to work at 6 am sharp and do 12-16 hrs str8 work..no excuses, all blood and sacrifice..i am honored to worked with the men and women who do the hard labor and fight the cold, haet and danger..with lil regard for self, and lil honor, we fight the good fight !

Good night to my DSNY Fam working 7pm shift b safe out there and someone pick me up @6 I’m going to 9 tomorrow thanks

Time for some REAL ice road truckin’!!

The streets are trecherous…stay indoors. Let the professionals do their job

Stay strong Q9, be safe.

Question of the week: How many 7-11 Taquitos will I consume this week?

12 hour shifts for the next few days so my brother/sister in laws and my new nephew can get home quickly and safely

Getting some rest b4 I have to go out & fight this coming blizzard with my boys in green, New Yorks Strongest ( DSNY )

So if your parked on the right side .. move it to the left if you can, cause when the plows come on down tonight, they have no mercy and u will be buried in! Every one please be safe & enjoy this holiday season!

LET IT SNOW!!!!!!!!

Prospect Park, Brooklyn. 11:17pm, Dec. 26. Photo credit: DSNY Official Photographer Michael Anton

::: ::: :::

Monday, December 27th, 2010 at 2:44 PM

:: The City's Strength ::, :: The Latest ::

1 Comment »

:: Don’t Get Nervous ::

December 30, 2008

He’s a good guy. He’s the guy that you can call when you need to be taken to the airport. He tries to be a good guy. He’ll tell you that. He’ll also say there were a lot of years of his screwing up. But he’s a good guy. He’s Schmekel the Airport Guy.

(Oh, he’s going to looove that. )

Each Sanitation Worker I interview – salt of the earth. I keep digging … deeper and deeper, more and more different Sanitation Workers, and each one reveals some other layer of ground-in integrity, the ownership of humanity’s flaws, proud gratitude and a dogged humility.

“Who am I to talk? There’re always two sides to every story… I’m just sayin,’”

Andrew says a few times throughout the interview. He just wants to find the balance of things.

His partner’s Johnny Chest Pains. His supervisor is “usually a nervous wreck about everything.” Andrew’s life motto: “Don’t Get Nervous.” He’s just trying to be the calm in the center of every hurricane. It ain’t easy, but it’s his schtick. Andrew tries to keep perspective, so everyone keeps perspective.

Johnny Chest Pains calls a couple of times during the interview. Andrew checks who’s ringing him and takes the call. Talks to him, counsels him, calms the guy on the other end down. Johnny Chest Pains is lucky to have Andrew Nitroglycerin.

He’s the Shop Steward – he represents his garage’s crew of SanMen and SanWomen to the Union, should things come up… complaints, injustices, pay. He’s got monthly meetings to go to. He doesn’t get anything for this – no extra benefit other than the title of Shop Steward. After the first shoot, I asked him if I could interview him. He called the Union to see if it would be ok. He protects himself, he protects the job. I was thrilled that he called. He actually smoothed the road for us when we’d later get a meeting with Union President Harry Nespoli.

:::

When he was a kid, he wanted to be a garbage man like his father or a fireman like his uncle.

He took the FDNY test. His mother’s brother was a fireman. He likes his uncle. He took the test, when he was 18, as soon as he could. Since I moved to New York, I’ve interviewed potential out-of-town roommates who wanted to rent my apartment just to claim New York residence so they could take the test to become a Hero in New York.

Andrew didn’t pass. He doesn’t give me details as to why.

“I probably wouldn’t be here, you know, if I’d passed, what with 9/11, you know?”

So he took a job with Bell Atlantic (what’s now known as Verizon) as a “I guess … I guess … I was a telephone repair man.” In November 1990, he took the test for the DSNY – his father retired a Sanitation Worker.

But this man – his father – when I ask him if his father might be willing to talk to me, he said,

“I don’t know. We don’t talk no more.”

I looked at him.

“Eh, don’t matter,”

and paused,

“His loss is what I say.”

These men don’t have death wishes…. Johnny Doz said the same kind of thing. “I like living, why would I want to go join the army and get shot?” said Doz. But that’s not slighting anyone’s choices – every man makes a choice for his own life.

These men like to work, a lot of them. And they like to live. And they all admit to screwing up all the time but feel good about the work that they do.

Andrew’s all about the balance … representing the fair … representing correctly.

“Who raised you?” came out of my mouth when I realized he kept answering my questions honestly and then double-backing with a “eh, but who am I to talk?”

“My mother.”

He tells me the guys are always busting his chops about his wife, who’s Jewish. He catches a lot of flack in his personal life about his boys wanting to be a garbage man.

“They want them to be an actor or lawyer or something,”

he says.

He took the test to be a Hero, The Bravest. But now, he’s the Strongest. He’s got two kids and a place of respect in the truck, in the garage, in the Union.

When one of the Strongest gets hurt in action, it’s buried in the papers, on the blogs, if appearing at all. Sure, we all understand it. But it’s not fair. The Strongest have made a choice just as respectable as any of ours. The choice to show up and commit to the City. No one’s gets a purple heart for showing up every day, and yet there’s an unresolved valor in it. But there’s an in-house newsletter produced by the DSNY that recognizes their achievements. No one ever sees it. But it’s there, the City’s got some stuff for posterity. Here’s hoping Dr. Nagle can find some more help and funding to get that out to the public.

But when one dies, the DSNY newsletter comes out to announce they’re naming the Coney Island garage after one of its SanMen died when a truck that wasn’t properly parked lurched forward and hit him. They named the Park Slope garage in Brooklyn after its first female Sanitation Worker who was killed in action. And the Mayor and the Commissioner come out to preside over the ceremony, and with all the flack the City gets for its bureaucratics, Mayor Bloomberg still comes out and says,

“Our Sanitation Workers are entrusted with keeping our City shining each and every day. Whether it’s cleaning our 6,300 miles of streets, picking up our garbage and recycling, or clearing our streets of snow and ice, the commitment of [the] Sanitation Department is unflinching … This necessary and admirable mission, however, is both dangerous and physically challenging. Sanitation Worker Eva Barrientos, the first uniformed female Sanitation Worker to die while on duty, was serving her city when she tragically died four years ago. Eva’s name on this new building will be a reminder to all of her colleagues and future Sanitation Workers of her unwavering dedication to duty, as well as her love and service to our City. We will never forget her.”

Well, Sanitation won’t forget her.

The City knows who its heroes are. Be as cynical as you want to be about photo opps and lip service. But my history and childhood in Memphis, TN never showed me the amount of built-in ceremony and service and support that I have found in this one civil service. So there’s confidence in this City’s garbage man job. And that’s why a lot of them say they’ve hit the lottery when they take the test and get chosen for Sanitation. And then they get to spend the next 20 years working out outside every day. And some will tell you, “I love this job! I’m free!”

A Sanitation Worker dies on the job, or can’t catch his breath still from a few days working Ground Zero, or struggles one day because his wife miscarried that week, or one of their pals has been taken by some financial partner and is looking at a hefty debt, or a separation is turning into a divorce. Who cares? The other Sanitation Workers do. And they come to the funeral or they talk about their colleagues while on the route or on break. And they wonder why it wasn’t them. And they wonder who it’s going to be next. Accidents, malfunctions, the job, family – it’s all in keeping the day to day the day to day.

Andrew knows his place. And sure, it sucks when all you hear is complaining and you go home to your family and they wish you knew how to invest your money better or could bill a client $300 for a phone call. But when you get home, you have a job that’s accountable by everyone. 14 tons of work can’t be obfuscated by pencil-necked analysts or Ponzi-schemers. And you know you’re taken care of when you retire. And no one’s shooting at you and no one’s expecting you to lose your life. At least …. in most neighborhoods.

A San Man is more likely to come around tomorrow than not. And his wife will just miss him in long hours of the snowy winter’s night.

So if you need a ride to the airport, you’d better hope you have an Andrew in your life that’s not going to bitch about it – especially when New York cabs will run you an easy $50. Andrew thinks that’s stupid when he could just drive you.

:::

His boys want to ride in the truck. He wears glasses and keeps his hair cut close to the scalp in the summer and longer in the winter. His nickname is Cup because he keeps a paper coffee cup in his hand all the time (and throughout the interview). He says he has “mental disturbances.” He comes through as much as he can. He says yes to too many things. He thinks there’s no camaraderie like the FDNY camaraderie but has taken yet ANOTHER phone call from Johnny Chest Pains. He just wants a balanced life.

This is Andrew. Andrew Aspromonte.

::: ::: :::

For more on Schmekel, click the Mongo.

Sunday, September 26th, 2010 at 12:49 AM

:: The Chase ::, :: The Latest ::

:: Mongo from the Interview with Aspromonte ::

["Mongo" is San-speak for the stuff you find in and the around the garbage that you want to take home. They can't, though. They're not allowed. I'm just sayin' - there's a name for it. Mongo. Interview Mongo, however? Not illegal! I didn't steal anything. Everything below is on-the-record. I swear.]

Andrew’s Stats:

Age: 39

Residence: Staten Island

Years on the Job: 11

Favorite Music: “I prefer Frank Sinatra, big band music. My uncle calls me ‘Fifties,’ though I am starting to like some ’80s music that I never liked then – it accounts for the mental disturbances I have.”

Favorite Movies: “Rocky – all the Rockys. Grease, I still like Grease – I make my kids watch it. I like stuff that don’t make any sense – stupid stuff – Police Academy, the Naked Guns.”

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

What do you think or talk about on the route?

Home life, I guess, wife and kids, mostly complaints, or if it’s heavy or light that day … 10-13 tons. If the first day of the week is light means the second time you come around, it’s gonna be heavy.

What you assume about people by what they throw out

Some of the dirtiest people live here … some neighborhoods – the garbage’s practically giftwrapped, like in Tottenville, Staten Island. No reason I can’t throw out my garbage right, you know? And I’m not perfect about the recycling … and I can judge people too much because the garbage at an apartment building with 3-4 families – who know who’s taking out the garbage? Doesn’t mean that the people that live there don’t care.

What do people say or think of San Men?

It’s not very nice. They don’t understand why we block the street … what I usually say – and I try not to say nothing – but before I had this job, I would just go down any street that didn’t have a truck stopped in it. That’s what I tell people.

You got a nickname?

Aspro.

And Schmekel, because my wife is Jewish and when we had our last son, the guys started calling me Schmekel. It’s Yiddish for penis.

Sometimes they call me The Cup because I’ve always got a cup of coffee in my hand.

What do you like about the DSNY?

Free workout, no gym fees, stress reliever. It’s the best job in the city, not just because I have it.
Look, nobody shoots at me, and I don’t have to go running into a burning building.

You know what a little kid told me … over there in Borough Park where there’s like a million Jews? I don’t know if they’re Sephardic or Hasidic but like a million Jews live there, you know? He said, “My daddy told me you have to go to jail to be a garbage man.” Now that father’s making it one of the worst things in the world because he wants the best for his son. My kids want to be garbage men. They want to come to work with me all the time. Drives my wife crazy because she wants them to be movie stars or doctors or lawyers or whatever. I’ve taken them to work, let them sit in the truck.

The Public thinks we’re lower than them … we’re actually … I wanna say it right… before the Department of Sanitation – whatever 75 years ago – they just used to throw the garbage in the streets and people would get sick. We take the risk, keep things sanitary for everyone else. … I love this, I really do. I had taken the test in November 1990 then there was a layoff and a hiring freeze. It took 9 years for them to call me and I took the opportunity.

What do you want to do when you retire?

Nothing. But I can’t do nothing, I’ve been working since I was 11. I’d probably go crazy but I’d like to do nothing.

Who takes out the trash at home?

Me … It’s a never-ending job [he laughs].

Who cleans up after you?

Mostly my wife. I’m not neat, but I’m not messy.

What’s your worst day on the job?

[Shrugs] … I really haven’t had a bad day.

What’s your best day on the job?

[Shrugs again] Every day’s the same … we work very hard. It’s not worth getting too happy or too unhappy.

What kind of person does it take to do this kind of work?

Dedicated … but I’ve been seeing more and more undedicated guys. It annoys me. They’re young, sure, but their work ethic is not the same. They don’t listen, and they spend too much time being wasted at home thinking about the things that are wrong on the job.

Have you been written up? Any complaints?

No, yes, but no – one or two things in the file – for nonsense – I never done anything that warranted disciplinary action.

Where’s ‘Strongest’ come from?

I guess because we lift stuff all day? Well, we do have to be up at 350 in the morning … and you’re on the the same route, everyday, and you start to care about it. You know, the older people in the neighborhood … I put their pails back on the sidewalk. We don’t have to. But I do. I don’t know.

Are you proud of your work?

For the most part.

Why do you guys talk so much?

We got a lot of things to … a lotta stuff to say [he makes a scramble gesture up beside his head] … lotta time out there, lotta thinking … lotta stuff to say when you get back in the truck, lotta info.

Who’s got your back? Who do you lean on? Who supports you?

My wife’s got my back, I know that.

I would hope that most of the guys do. I think of most of them like my family – we spend so much time together.

::: ::: :::

There’s more Mongo here.

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 at 12:48 AM

:: The Latest ::, :: The Mongo ::

:: Chasing Johnny Doz II ::

October 15, 2008

Doz hasn’t called.

It’s the night of the Presidential Debate, and I’m going to have to flipping watch it. I usually do, but I didn’t want to tonight. I wanted to talk to a Sanitation Worker.

Eh, I’m in Park Slope, anyway. The loose plans we set – you never know. He might come through.

I’m sitting at Aunt Suzie’s on 5^th Avenue with a glass of Montepulciano and a salad. I’ve always wanted to try the place, and Doz hasn’t confirmed and I’m starting to collapse into poor-mouthing everything. I think he’s flaking on me. If he flakes, I’ve started a stupid project following around deadbeats and losers who can’t do any better. I always start these projects based on someone’s failing self-esteem, intent on writing them out of it. Committed to giving them a little support from my vantage point. I’m like some sort of emotional probation officer. It’s stupid. But I can’t stop. And there’s little payback and there’s a lot of keeping the faith. After so many pitches and projects, I can waver fast. So I’m sucking down this Montepulciano fast and distracted.

When my phone starts vibrating.

“Where are you?”

“I’m eating but can meet you at Bar Loki in a half hour. Can you do that?” I feel like I’m begging this guy. Why is everyone so hard to track down? I just don’t want to do this with them on the job, in the garage, with all the guys there watching and commenting and razzing them later about ‘talking to the reporter.’ I’m no reporter. And it’s just too political in the garage. I’ve got to get permission, etc. etc. Who needs it? Why is it so hard to get a person out for a drink and a burger?

I hear ya, Doz, I do too. Used to be so easy …

So he shows up. I offer to buy him a beer. “My interview, my treat,” I say.

“I can’t drink much, but sure, ok, I’ll take a Heineken,”

he says to the bartender.

And I ask him his stats and, BAM, we’re well on our way into the first interview.

:::

He’s wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Baseball cap turned backwards. He wears the LiveStrong yellow bracelet from Lance Armstrong’s foundation. He’s got an earring in one ear. He walks proud, chest out, head held high – like he’s always ready to catch anything that’s thrown at him – a punch, a ball, a Barcalounger. He smells like a shower. He’s not at all nervous. He’s got a drum set at home and a custody case in full swing. He owns two humble but running cars. He’s worried about the guys that cleaned up after 9/11 and who are still sick now. He worked one day and couldn’t go back. He’s named after the Beatle, not the Pope. He’s a cheap date. He takes his vitamins every day. His house is cleaner than your mother’s. He hates long weekends. He lets no grass grow under his feet. He’s got a closet of toys for his kids when things settle down.

This is Johnny. Johnny Doz.

::: ::: :::

For Mongo on Doz, click here.

Sunday, September 19th, 2010 at 12:35 PM

:: The Chase ::, :: The Latest ::

:: Mongo from the Interview with Doz ::

Johnny’s Stats:

Full Name: John Paul Doz

Age: 41

Residence: Staten Island

Garage: Borough Park

Years on the Job: 10

Title: “Garbologist with a Ph.D. in Recycling, sworn to uphold the Garbage Law of Trash”

Favorite Music: Rush, Journey, (“I’m a musician – I play the drums”), Boston, John Hiatt, Pink Floyd – “did you write down Pink Floyd?”

Favorite Sayings:

1. Progress has no patience.
2. Appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive.
3. Don’t mistake kindness for weakness.

What do you assume about people by what they throw out?

Certain blocks are filthy – bunch of slobs. There’s dirty garbage and clean garbage, you know?

What do people say about Sanitation Workers?

For the most part, they like us – except when they get stuck behind us.

What do you like about the DSNY?

The guys, the job, the freedom.

What do you not like about the DSNY?

Rain is the worst. And disco rice.

What are your favorite movies?

Shawshank Redemption, Jaws, Godfather I and II, And Justice for All

Who takes out the trash at home?

Me.

What’s your worst day on the job?

My worst day? Separated from my wife, because of what it did to the kids, but worst day on the job? Hard to come up with … can’t think of a worst day. I like to work. I hate long weekends.

What’s your best day on the job?

Every day. I like working.

What kind of person does it take to do this kind of work?

A NUT!

Are you proud of your work?

[Without pausing] Yes. I’m proud to put on the shirt.

Why do you guys talk so much?

Because we got big mouths – we’re like Jewish women.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Musician. I’m a drummer. [“Who’d you want to play for?” He laughs long and hard.] Jaime Pressly or Shania Twain! [He keeps laughing.]

Who’s got your back? Who do you lean on? Who supports you?

Me. I believe in myself. [thinks] I guess the guys – we support each other.

::: ::: :::

Sunday, September 19th, 2010 at 12:30 PM

:: The Latest ::, :: The Mongo ::

:: Dowda’s Kicks ::

After the Chase in Sunset Park, Sept. 17, 2010

Chaser needs a new pair of shoes.

::: ::: :::

Saturday, September 18th, 2010 at 3:13 PM

Sanitation Rules !

172 Backers. And that’s not including those of you that we know pooled your resources and shook down your friends to go in together on a donation. Queens, Savannah,TN. Actually it was Eleni who lives in Queens and Queens 8 Garage that met and surpassed our goal with time to spare. Yep, we know who you are and where you live .

$ 8170.oo !!

Challenge New York’s Strongest, their friends and family,
And they’ll take it.
And then they’ll go you one (or 670!) better.

The DSNY and Local 831 stayed in touch throughout the day. So did our friends. So did Dr. Robin Nagle. So did Sanitation Workers on our phones and Facebook. Aspromonte posted on Liz’s wall – “Never had a doubt.”

Keep in touch here and on our Facebook for details on the Exhibit.

XXOO to all ya’ll,
Liz & Lisa

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

When was the last time someone asked you for something

so dirty

and clean

and classy

at the same time??

Until Friday Sep 24, 8:38pm EST, we are raising dough for a photo exhibit to show this work. We need you, your friends, your cousins, colleagues and people who owe you to get involved. The President of the Sanitation Workers of New York union – the Local 831 - has generously offered to match us whatever YOU donate. Your $10 spot – magic! It’s $20!

And there are Rewards! Framed prints, T-shirts, fried chicken, a DATE. C’mon – don’t make us beg. We’re doing good work, we have a lot of people giving what they can already – folks from San Diego, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Oakland, Brooklyn. We’ve got people we don’t even know donating. We have a Sanitation Choreographer in Austin donating. Dr. Garbage has kicked in her share. Former bosses, roommates, prom dates, TV producers.

So if you to have a little love to give to this Labor of Love / Love of Labor, please visit this Kickstarter link! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/557053926/chasing-sanitation-falling-in-love-with-new-yorks

The kicker of Kickstarter is that we will only receive your donation if we reach our goal so every little $10 helps! Did you get that? We have to do this by Friday, Sept. 24. At 8:38pm. Meeting our goal, rallying all of you, proves PROVES that CHASING SANITATION is wanted, needed and has a life in the mainstream.

Many of you know what it’s like to promote your own project or cause – for yourself, for others, for work.

I know there are people out there where $25 is nothing for you. Some of you $100 smarts a little but it’s better than holding on to it. There’s a lot of you that can afford to give hundreds of dollars – you’ve made it in life. You’ve been blessed with resource and support and family that made sure you saw your life through to its comfort and reward. And you can give. Really – we all can give, right? $10. $100. $1500 – it’s all adds up.

You will never regret giving to the folks who are just a little under the radar, the folks that do the work that makes the neighborhood and city safe.

This is no hand-out – this is the experience of doing something fun and crazy and with impact and we’ll call you out and shoot it and YouTube it from the Exhibit. You’ll know your impact. And it’ll be a total hoot. But you gotta give. You gotta scroll through the Rewards Liz and I have posted on the Kickstarter page and you gotta see what works for you. But give, ok?

So if you’ve got the extra keyboard energy, we’d love it if you can spread the link-love around to your hometowns, family, coworkers and friends. This project – these photos and stories – they represent families just keeping up the day-to-day. We want to support them and their jobs and our neighborhoods and in doing so, show them for the gorgeous folks that they are.

And thanks so much for all the support and feedback thusfar.

Spreadin’ the love,
Liz and Lisa

Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 10:40 PM

3 Comments »

:: Chicks Who Dig Sanitation ::

In this continual Chase, the why continues to chase me, and only occasionally supplying me with rational explanations. I look at my cell phone filled mostly with Sanitation Workers and think I could use more diverse friends.

‘Course Mark here … well, why ask why, huh?

Most days, really, I think that’s the only reason I’m doing this project is … look – it’s embarrassing. It’s stupid and it’s simple and it’s embarrassing.

I want someone else to take out the trash.
I hate it.
Like Roy DiMaggio, I hate it.

I don’t know where this comes from. But when I leave my apartment and see the Green Collars moving all over my neighborhood on a Monday morning, I realize my hood is just an extension of my home. I should be so grateful I don’t have to pay some overpriced monthly fee for someone to cart away my two bags of trash per week.

Yes, I’m single. WOAH, some newsflash. The bitching about taking out the trash screams it. If I was married, would I still be Chasing Sanitation? If my Italian patriarchs weren’t all Navy, Police and Firemen, would I be Chasing Sanitation? If my dad wasn’t an accountant who constantly told me to do anything else but be an accountant, would I find these hard-working people so fascinating? Would I be so envious?

There is a part of me that thinks I’m certifiable. I’m the reverse construction worker – eyeballin’ every collection truck that crosses my path, smiling stupidly at the guys moving all over my neighborhood on my morning dog walks, hootin’ at Hathaway when he snowplows down my street. Who does this???

Truth is: Liz and I are not the only chicks to Chase Sanitation. We come from a long line of chicks that have seen past the discarded to the person and City that keeps that garbage moving along. Before us, they all had their own reasons. And we realize that this book project, this site, has already converted a precious few others.

Namely,

photo by Lisa's cell

Testa Rossa.

She found Sanitation on her own.

I didn’t say a thing to her.

Before that mutt, before Liz and Lisa, there was Robin. Dr. Robin Nagle. She’s Dr. Garbage. She ruminates about Sanitation Workers like I do. She’s even put on the uniform, hauled and dumped the trash, run the street sweeper. She lived to write about it. She’s still writing about it. She’s helming up the Museum of Sanitation. She is actually the DSNY’s Anthropologist-in-Residence. She kicks anthropological ass.

Before her, Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Now she’s a sort of pioneer – as well as being DSNY’s Artist-in-Residence. She connects my hatred of housework with my distraction with 7000 people doing New York’s housework. She’s met a lot more SanMen than we have. It could be that she and Robin have it actually worse than I do.

Jury’s still out on that.

But waaaaaaaaaay before any of us, before HBO’s “The Sopranos” gave everybody a smirky joke to make about Sanitation like they knew anything about anything, there was Josephine. Josephine Shaw Lowell.

An Excerpt from Kevin Rice & Local 831’s

Dignity & Respect

From an excerpt from Dignity & Respect, by Kevin Rice, published by Local 831 (2009)

Women to the Rescue – Led by the Extraordinary Josephine Shaw Lowell

It took the “women’s movement” to focus public attention on the city’s Street Cleaners. Made up of mostly upper-class women, their embrace of political and moral reform led them quickly to the cause of labor. At first, they addressed child labor and the welfare of working women. However, their strong interest in sanitary reform soon acquainted them with street cleaning operations and the labor problems that beset it. For many, it appeared to view “municipal housekeeping” as an extension of their domestic roles. They considered the city their house and the streets “their hallway.”

These women helped Colonel Waring* find a more conciliatory approach to his “labor problems.” The Women’s Municipal League, a powerful agent of progressive change at the time, conducted regular inspections of the streets appointed as the official street inspectors and the Department’s stables. The League even proposed that women get appointed as the official street inspectors. What had started as a “domestic” interest soon turned political. And, in the process, their desire to improve the conditions of the streets soon evolved into a desire to improve the conditions – and the pay – of the men who cleaned those streets. Before long the Women’s Municipal League had become the champions of the White Wings.

No woman put her mark on the early Street Cleaners’ labor movement more than the founder of the Women’s Municipal League, Josephine Shaw Lowell. As a leader of the women’s movement, Lowell soon became a fierce advocate for better working conditions – especially for shorter hours – for the city’s workers, including Street Cleaners. She recognized the right of workers to organize and called on other women to help “found trade organizations where they do not exist and assist existing labor organizations to the end of increasing wages and shortening hours.”

Lowell corresponded with Colonel Waring when he was first beset by labor troubles. It was she who, in a series of letters to Waring, recommended the setting up of a “Board of Conciliation” to deal with the Street Cleaners’ grievances and demands. Her influence was at least partly responsible for Waring’s setting up a grievance apparatus, the “Committee of Forty-One,” to settle those matters. As Lowell wrote:

“I believe in the right to strike; but remember that a strike is like war; it brings great misery with it … What I want to do, is, with others, to prevent strikes …

When labor organizations and organizations of employers act together in joint boards of conciliation, they are, of course, far more effective for this purpose than when the two bodies act alone and often in opposition to each other.

If by means of such organizations the relations between employers and employed could be adapted on an enduring and satisfactory basis, all causes of strife and contention removed … wages increased … strikes and turnouts prevented … the health and comfort of the workmen looked after, and other matters discussed and regulated, who would say that such results would not be worth any sacrifice that they might cost?”

… “the women’s movement” focused public attention on the city’s Street cleaners. The Women’s Municipal League’s progressive goals had led them first to the cause of child labor and the welfare of working women, but their campaign for sanitary reform had also made them fast friends with and defenders of the White Wing. She group saw poor worker morale at the heart of the department’s inefficiency. They also railed against the payoffs rampant in the city’s hiring system, and demanded better training for Street Cleaners. These mainly upper-class women saw “municipal housekeeping” as an extension of their role at home.

*Colonel George E. Waring was the Civil War veteran who was appointed in 1895 to Commissioner of Street Cleaning in 1895 by then Mayor Strong. (Teddy Roosevelt was Strong’s first choice and opted to be Commissioner of Police instead.) The Colonel insisted on being called Colonel, not Commissioner. He was credited with the successful design of a modern sewage system in Memphis, TN. This is one of a few historical intersections between Sanitation in New York and Sanitation in Memphis.

*White Wings is the nickname given to the early ancestors of New York’s Strongest, when Waring changed the Street Cleaners’ uniforms to all white. For an extra splash, he arranged the first Street Cleaners Parade in 1896 down Fifth Avenue to show them off as a then quasi-military force.

::: ::: :::

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 6:47 PM

:: A Woman Works ::

She’s been on the job for 19 years.

She had a certain heaviness about her. Liz didn’t see it. I couldn’t help but see it. Liz chided me about seeing only this part of people’s lives. To watch myself. Liz saw joy and strength. I saw something else … not sure what yet.

Maybe it was strength … but at a cost.

Strength at a cost.

We chased her and her partner Kenny for about an hour. We came up to a huge pile of garbage and I watched her walk up to it and paused momentarily. I asked her,

“Hey Mary, so everyday, you see this big pile of trash, right?”

She said, “Unh huh…”

“And so, everyday, do you just look at it and go ‘Oh. My. God.’ ?”

She laughed and said, “Yeh, Every day, that’s right. ‘Oh Lord!’”

She has two sons. One that just got married. She wants that marriage to go well – she’s waiting and watching … We followed her for a long time in a pretty nice area of the Bronx – Riverdale. Cars would come up and honk and threaten and hassle her and her partner.

She held up her hands and said, “I can get you a pair of gloves and this’ll go faster.” And that would shut them up.

She kept saying to us, “I can’t believe this is what I do everyday. I never saw my life as being like this.”

Does any of us? Does any of us see our lives turning out the way they do?

She’s retiring within the year. And she’s going to relax.

This is Mary. Mary Russell.

::: ::: :::

Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 11:14 PM

:: The First Blush ::

:: The Chase ::, :: The First Blush ::

:: Always with the Why? ::

It’s deep – this thing with me and Sanitation. And it’s got a life of its own.

Why I thought about Chasing Sanitation for a year is really beyond me.

Why I still think about them -
when it snows,
rains,
the Yankees win –

I’m still not too sure.

It changes on any given day – the things I tell smart people, people with sway, people who need to be educated, careless people, thoughtful people, overachieving people. But the real why?
I talked about it a lot, asked a lot of questions – before I talked to Liz, before I made a proposal, before I made the first phone call to the Dept. of Sanitation’s Public Information Office. I just couldn’t get over them – they were everywhere – this is not normal for Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles.

Or, OR, there’s something about Sanitation in New York that I couldn’t ignore. But in talking about it, in fleshing it out and gauging interest, from my friends, colleagues and cocktail party attendees, I’d get these assumptive responses.

“I’m doing a project on the Dept. of Sanitation.”

Are you an anthropologist?

“No, no – I’m just a writer.”

Oh. Are you doing an exposè on sanitation in New York?”

“No, no – It’s not about garbage. It’s about them – the street crews – the people.”

Oh, I see. You a graduate student? A sociologist? You studying municipal unions?

“No. Um – they’re friendly, and they’re gorgeous, and they’re everywhere. I wanted to get to know them, so I’m interviewing them. See?”

These overeducated conversations sort of drive me crazy. Like I have to have some sort of justifiable agenda to be interested in these people? Why can’t I just see them as beautiful and comforting?

It made it clearer to me that some people know that they should care about who takes out their garbage, but don’t feel the need to connect to them regularly as people. Such is the great divide of a person doing a job and the person.

But of the Sanitation Workers? What would they say when I told them I was putting together a project on them?

WHY ???

“Why not?”

‘Cause we stink! I don’t stink, we don’t stink, but that’s what people think. Well, this guy stinks but it’s not because of the garbage, know what I’m saying? HA! No, we got showers back there, but that’s what people think – we don’t smell like garbage. Garbage smells like garbage.

“That’s sort of why. People don’t know you. I don’t know you, but you keep my neighborhood clean. I want to know who cleans up after me. I guess that’s why.”

We’re garbage men. Nobody cares about us.

“I do.”

And then you couldn’t shut them up.

From an evening walk one night in Park Slope, I’ve thought they were my protectors. One guy doing baskets on 5th Avenue chatted me up, and he was all tatted up and friendly and so what if he was flirting with me. Who knows? Maybe keeping some conversation going at midnight on the graveyard shift on a physical labor job is better than bitching about it the whole time. In any event, I found the Sanitation Workers to be my friendly neighborhood protectors, and I just had a feeling about them.

There was magic around them.

See, there’s something about a man who takes out the garbage, every day. And later, I would find out, there’s something extra special about the woman who takes out your trash every day. And there’s definitely something about this woman who hates taking out her trash every day.

But when we showed up one sulty, rainy morning in August at 51st and 1st in Sunset Park in 2008, something got shoved into motion. Wary that we had showed up just to complain, the garage foreman, Paul and the superintendent Domenic talked to us anyway. They made their phone calls downtown to check to see if we were authorized. I kept telling them we weren’t. We stood there, blinking, smiling, hoping, sweating. We weren’t leaving. We had to chase them once, at least. And Paul and Domenic – they seemed just happy to getting something other than negative attention.

It wasn’t until Hal, who lives up the street from me, came bounding up to us being shook down by the DSNY, that Paul and Domenic looked the other way. “Hey, I know that girl! She’s my neighbor!” I told him what we were up to and Hal said, “Hey guys, I’ll vouch for her – she’s my neighbor.”

I gotta tell you – my family never vouched for me. And here, this guy that’s just seen me walk to and from work to the train for a year vouched for me. On his turf.

Thank god for Hal. Little does he know that he set this whole thing spinning. Sort of blessed it. Because Hal vouched for me and Liz, Paul and Domenic relented and looked the other way when they weren’t supposed to.

So why am I Chasing Sanitation?

Magic. There’s Magic.

::: ::: :::

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 at 7:00 PM

:: The Chase ::

3 Comments »

:: The First Shoot ::

Cutting Our Teeth On Mark and Johnny-Dodges-the-Check
August 30, 2008

We’d been chasing and shooting since 6:30 am on this Saturday morning.

John Hathaway and Andrew Aspromonte had already given us the best of them, and we wouldn’t know just how vibrantly their shots, their laughter, their teamwork would show up in photos until later.

We were on fire, excited by them, thinking this first shoot went easier than we thought. They both agreed to an interview!

Oh, yeh, this was going to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. It would write itself.

Liz and I found a diner in my neighborhood to power down. We burst through the door of the D&D Diner on Ft. Hamilton in Borough Park yapping, giggling and sweating. We had both shown up that morning in the very same outfit – jeans, black shirt, tennis shoes. That was weird. We were pretty nervous. I had no idea what I would say to any of these guys. I knew precious little about hierarchy and titles and garages and routes.

There’s a lot to be said for just sort of chasing after your dream, not knowing too much about getting there.

So, anyway, there at the D&D Diner, we slopped all our gear and bags down in a booth. Liz breathlessly said to me, “You were so right.” About what? “About this – the whole idea – the guys. I mean, I kind of thought when you first asked me, sure. But then my life and workload were so crazy and then you asked about it again, and I said, Sure, Why Not. It’s a big project, but you were so right.”

I’m still not sure exactly what she meant. But we both couldn’t stop telling the stories of just the last hour and a half back and forth to each other. “And Paul, that foreman guy? With the

‘We’re men! Don’t degrade us!’

That was amazing!

‘We don’t stink!!’

And everyone giving him shit. And then that neighbor guy that recognized you from the neighborhood!”

(That’s Hal. He lives on my street. More on him later …)

She’s a morning person. I am not. But I’m ramped up high this morning. Just then, a couple of collection trucks pulled up and parked outside. A couple, like, FOUR. And then they all started pouring in. Sanitation Worker after Sanitation Worker. Who knew we had landed at the routine break on the morning route for Brooklyn 12 Borough Park Garage? That was weird too. A fifth truck pulls up outside the window we’re settled at. Liz looks at me. I look at her.

“Can we talk to them? Do you mind?” I ask her. “Oh yeh! Absolutely!” She’s already got her hands on her camera.

In walks Johnny Doz. He’s on his cell, not even barely through the door when I,

“Hey! Can we talk to you?”

He looks at me with the WTF face. You know that face. It’s a New Yorker face. It’s suspicious, it’s why-ya-bothering-me, but it’s open for opportunities to mix it up.

He looks at the both of us, sees all our stuff. He pauses a little. So I bark up again, “We’re doing a project on you guys – you know – the Sanitation Workers of New York.”

“I’ll call you back,” he says into his cell phone, and his face softens. “Oh yeh?”

“Wanna sit here?” I gesture to the empty booth next to our table. “Yeh, sure, what the hell,” he shrugs. The tough guy shrug like he’s making a choice to go along with me. “If it’s okay with my partner.”

And so they ordered and we talked. And it was in a few diner orders and a lotta laughs later that I fell in love.

With both of them.

And therefore, with all of them. It was sort of from that moment on that I started hoping I could get my hands on a green DSNY T-shirt of my own to lay around in on Saturday morning writing about them.

Johnny Doz and Mark. It was only about 20 minutes that we spent with them. They started finishing up with their meal, and it was getting to that uncomfortable point of what to talk about next – politics, the weather, the Yankees, the Hasidic bakeries nearby, my frizzy hair, how all the busting of each other’s chops was slaying us.

Johnny Doz gets a call. He excuses himself to take it in the truck outside.
The waitress brings the check, and Mark starts in.

“He gets a phone call every time it’s time for the check. Look at that, he’s out there on the phone and look! The check’s here,” and he holds up to us.

Mark’s bright blue eyes – he’s busting his chops. The guys obviously don’t hate working with each other – they had a sort of honed rapport, which I later learned they all sort of have when they’re partnered with any Sanitation Worker that has the same sort of work ethic and won’t drive them crazy yapping about stupid stuff in the truck.

Mark pays it, and Johnny comes back and asks about it. “Yeh yeh, I got it. I told them you got the phone call when the check comes.”

Johnny says, “Aw, no! The junior picks up the senior check? That’s not right!” Mark laughs. And Johnny’s face mock pouts. He knows he needed to pay. Maybe this is something he does?

I asked Mark, “So who takes out the trash in your house?”

“I do.”

“Really? Seriously? You take out everybody’s trash all day long and someone can’t take out your trash?”

“I don’t mind.” His conversation shifts nervously to telling me he’s having a birthday party for his 1-year-old the next day. “Oh my gosh – congratulations!” I say, when just then, Johnny pops his head in the door from his cell phone call to ask, “Your party tomorrow? What’s gonna be there?”

Without blinking, Mark says, “Pony, chickens, a goat and one of those face painter people. 2pm. Don’t be late … I’m paying the petting zoo from 2-4.” Johnny ducks out again, and Mark leans in to our table, “One of those miniature horses – whaddaya call those things?”

“Miniature ponies?”

And he laughs. “Right! I bust the chops of the short guys at the station about they get free rides!”

So I’m still curious. I force him to go back to talking about taking out the trash at home. I hate taking out the trash. I have my trash issues. Woah, some newsflash.

“So you take out the trash?”

“Yeh, I don’t want her too. She works so hard. Harder than me. Longer hours than I gotta. It’s alright.”

Mark has been with DSNY for 4 years. He used to drive a liquor delivery truck until “something was getting a little fugazi with our pensions disappearing.”

Mark, being a junior to Johnny’s 9 years on the job, was staunch throughout the conversation on “don’t write that down” and “take off that bandanna” to Johnny because it wasn’t uniform code. The juniors are always more nervous about all the rules of the DSNY than the guys who have a few more years on the job. It’s best that way.

Johnny’s got two daughters - a nine-year-old and a 14-year-old. It had to have been a female on that call – he was so serious out there.

Soon, they both were out the door, and Liz right with them. I watched them yapping her up and her giggling and shooting and giggling and shooting, and so I followed. They were setting up a shot. It was Marc’s idea.

“Give ‘em your number – I’m married!” Mark urges Johnny. “Give ‘em your number!” and handed him a pen. We waved them off, promising to call later – for an interview! For an interview.

Weirder still. And then again, maybe, not so much.

This is Johnny Doz. Johnny and Mark.

::: ::: :::

Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 8:18 PM

:: SanQuotes ::

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.
~ Charles Dickens

::: ::: :::

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;
I owe my soul to the Company store …
~ “16 Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford (1955 song about coal miners but a two-person team of Sanitation Workers move up 16 tons a day, so there.)

::: ::: :::

If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. , from The Mountaintop in Memphis, April 3, 1968

::: ::: :::

In the morning, the garbage men that go by 57th Street when I come out the door say, “Marilyn, hi! How do you feel this morning?” To me,it’s an honor, and I love them for it. The working men, I’ll go by and they’ll whistle. At first they whistle because they think, oh, it’s a girl. She’s got blond hair and she’s not out of shape, and then they say, “Gosh,it’s Marilyn Monroe!”
~ Marilyn Monroe, Film actress, all-around good body

::: ::: :::

Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning.
~ Gerry Cooney, professional boxer in early 1990′s

::: ::: :::

I see a lot of people who love their jobs. I see some garbage collectors smiling as they go about their work.
~ Willie Stargell, outfielder & first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates

::: ::: :::

I’ve dated men my age, younger than me and older. The only difference is the young ones are quicker at taking out the garbage.
~ Lara Flynn Boyle, Film/TV actress, “Twin Peaks,” “The Practice,” “Mobsters”

::: ::: :::

I’ve worked in a factory. I was a garbage man. I worked in a post office. It’s not that long ago. I like to think that I’m just a regular guy.
~ Denzel Washington, Oscar award-winning actor, “Glory,” “John Q,” “Training Day,” “Fallen,” “Malcolm X,” “Philadelphia”

::: ::: :::

If I have any appeal at all, it’s to the fellow who takes out the garbage.
~ Lee Marvin, film actor, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “The Dirty Dozen”

::: ::: :::

If the working people had all they ought to have, we should not have the paupers and criminals. It is better to save them before they go under, than to spend your life fishing them out afterward.
~ Josephine Shaw Lowell, activist, philanthropist, turn-of-the-century Progressive reform leader, former Staten Island resident

::: ::: :::

My parents would always say, ‘It doesnt’ matter if it’s a guy picking up the garbage or the President of the United States, treat everybody as you would want to be treated.

~ Dan Marino, former Miami Dolphins quarterback

::: ::: :::

New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I’ve discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage.
~ Anna Quindlen, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and best-selling author

::: ::: :::

People see my current success but don’t realize I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I used to clean garbage off the Philadelphia docks and put a lot of time into developing my music.
~ Kevin Eubanks, jazz guitarist, Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” sidekick

::: ::: :::

When I go home my mother still makes me take out the garbage.
~ Nomar Garciaparra, Major League Baseball plaayer for Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, LA Dodgers, Oakland Athletics

::: ::: :::

::: ::: :::

Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 5:47 PM

4 Comments »

:: A Sanitation Worker’s Prayer at Roll Call ::

Sanitation garages are never in the middle of a neighborhood. They skirt the rivers, the edges of communities, the far reaches of the city’s hustle.

Dirty on the Outside, Warm on the Inside

The garages are the size of movie studios, filled with the ways and means to getting the job done. The collection trucks, the offices, the supervisors’ cars, the plows, the chains – the big, the bulky, the steely of Sanitation.

Walk in one and you’re easily dwarfed by the expanse of machines. Continue in, and you’ll bump into a different kind of steely.

At roll call on a dark early Friday morning in August in the Bronx, the crew gathered for roll call and shared a moment together. We were lucky to be here.

We were honored for a fly-on-the-wall witness of what this particular garage does to unify the team – after roll call, after getting their route assignments, after the coffee and whatever it took to get them up and moving at 6am. Not everyone lives in the Bronx, not everyone’s Christian, not everyone’s Atheist. But everyone’s a New Yorker and everyone will be moving the City’s garbage out of the way among people trying to get to work on time.

I’ll keep saying it: it is a dangerous job. Every day, every minute and it’s hard. It’s not all driving in a truck. It’s 16 tons of germ-ridden, vermin-preyed, and criminal evidence we’ll never know the hidden story behind. It’s baby bottles and diapers and kitty litter and doggie bags of leftover gone bad. It’s hypodermic needles illegally obtained and shared. It’s whatever else we waste of what is private in our own homes.

Sure, it’s not taking a shot for your partner – well, you hope it’s not.

And so, on this morning, SanMan William Holmes stepped up to offer up a few thoughts to whatever God or Protector that’s floating around the lives of these men and women. On the edge of the city, before the sun is up, a crew takes a moment.

Here is that request to God:

William Holmes

“Everlasting to Everlasting,

We come to you this morning to give you praise and glory and honor, to thank you for waking us up this morning in our right minds and keeping us safe through the night.

We want to thank you for your love, mercy and grace. And as we pray to you, a perfect God, we come to you as imperfect people asking forgiveness of our sins. We ask these all you Lord for your forgiveness. And we ask that you look upon those today who are out sick, out on LODI, and we ask for special healings for whatever their infirmities are.

Bless the supervisors and officers who have charge over us. Bless them with godly wisdom.

We ask you, Lord God, that you protect us today.
We ask that you cover us.

Cover us with the blood of Christ that was shed on Calvary. Keep us safe on the highways and byways, from dangers seen and unseen.

May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

Oh Lord, Our Strength and Our Redeemer, In Christ’s name. Amen.”

Given by William “Reverend Minister” Holmes, Bronx 8, August 28, 2009

::: ::: :::

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 at 4:17 PM

:: The Chase ::, :: The First Blush ::

1 Comment »

:: He Wouldn’t Let Liz Take His Picture ::

What He Doesn’t Want People to See
August 30, 2008

I pulled up behind a recycling truck on 46th between 7th and 8th in Sunset Park.

It was a once rainy, now humid overcast Saturday morning. There was an Asian man loading up clear and
neatly tied recycling bags. He looked bedraggled … not tired in that physical labor way … mentally tired. Heart tired. Maybe that was just me projecting through the distance between he and I, as citizen and SanMan, woman and man, Eastern and Western. It was our first day – maybe I was looking for something specific in a garbage man.

Here in Brooklyn’s Chinatown, the residents rushed out, handing him their smartly wrapped bags of jugs and cans and paper. Some of them spoke to him. He didn’t engage. And he’s looking at me looking at him and then at Liz who’s walking around wielding her camera. He’s suspicious. His furrowed brow with a wave of his hand flagging me, he started over towards me in my van. He pointed to Liz who was just up the street with the truck in front of them, laughing it up with the drivers and pointing and clicking them like mad.

He’s in his late 30s, maybe 40s, barely graying at the temples, handsome if he wasn’t so … depressed? Exhausted? Mad at me? I couldn’t put my finger on it, until –

“Why she taking pictures?”

I told him, “She and I are working on a project about the sanitation workers and how they take care of the neighborhood.”

He started waving his hands low, like an umpire and saying, “I don’t want picture of me, no pictures.”

I screw up my face and ask why.

“I don’t want nobody knowing I am stinky ole garbage man.”

Man! My first thought was: he makes more money than me. He has health insurance. He’s got us following him around at 7am on a Saturday morning. Nobody’s begging for my picture. No one wants my freelance life.

I know it’s weird – this crush-turned-envy I have for Sanitation Workers. But then, really, it’s not all that weird at all.

Look, I’ve had and still have my own shame about my job status. For all of my adult life, I have had to keep a day job and write and produce and perform outside that day job for love, pleasure and money on the side. This keeps me over-explaining and lying about what I do in various circles – never with the straight story. Both of my jobs are cocktail conversation killers, so I try to keep it simple. Tell people I’m a writer. Shuts people up and they assume that I’m published like crazy. It’s fine – let them assume what they want. I am sort of published – I’m no David Foster Wallace or Jennifer Weiner though. I’m something different.

And I understand the garbage thing, sort of. I get the divided brain feeling of realizing what you ALLOW yourself to get paid to do. I was once a buyer of celebrity paparazzi photos. I was at one of those websites that made its money and fame proudly bringing you the panty-less Britney and the racial slurring Mel Gibson. I hated telling anyone I was a stinky ole celebrity website editor. I grinded my teeth every night.

I had health insurance and hunched shoulder pain and drank about 40 gallons of coffee a week, sure, and those drunk starlets put money in my 401K, but never did I have pride, nor a pension.

I certainly, to this day, have NOTHING to show you for my 16-months of buying Lohan, TomKat and D-listed Pauly Shore footage for obscene amounts of money. I have nothing to show, really, for that time, but a couple of links and a vague understanding of XML.

And I get what it’s like doing a job that people laugh at and collectively mock but secretly need.

But I don’t understand HIS shame. I do but I don’t.

And it hurts me, that he walks away in the middle of a sentence. I can’t see this man as a stinky old garbage man. I don’t know what it means to a man’s sense of self, to be ashamed of his work. I don’t know what it’s like to be an immigrant working for the City. And I can’t keep him long enough to even thank him for his work. He goes back to the curb and picks up what I pulled him away from.

Thanking him – it’s just so cliché – and inappropriate in this weird moment of unreceived honor. The Chinese residents try to speak to him in their own languages, and he sometimes answers them, sometimes shrugs.

Maybe that’s it – the sheepishness I’m feeling.
Maybe that’s what drives the friendliness I feel from these guys in the neighborhood.
Maybe it’s all they got, is that shrug … “just doing my job … can’t hide … here I am … don’t judge me for earning a living and I won’t judge you for what I see you waste everyday.”

Maybe it’s that slack they cut themselves that I’ve not been able to do for myself.

It’s impossible to see your own nobility when you’re in the middle of it.

::: ::: :::

Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 9:08 AM

:: He Doesn’t Want You to Know His Nickname ::

Throughout New York’s history, throughout municipal histories worldwide, labor movements have been tethered to the battles lost and gained by Sanitation unions. If we were to gain wide attention for the people that we Chase and come to love, we would have to win the City – and mostly, the Union.

We first met with Harry Nespoli, the president of the Local 831 Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Union back in February 2009. Liz and I – we were naive, but excited, stoked to get up at 4 in the morning, to get in a car at 5, to make sure we get to his office in lower Manhattan at 6 sharp. If they can do it, we have to do it. These guys have fought more than just their morning alarm clock.

We wanted him to see what we see. Or rather, to show him a new side of something he’s been guardian of since 2000. When he came across one closeup shot of Roy DiMaggio, he stopped. He lingered and moved closer to the photo.

Harry Nespoli, Local 831 President, and Roy DiMaggio, Brooklyn Sanitation Worker

“Ah! My hair used to do that!”

With one shot, Roy’s thick black hair brings this robust, white-haired union leader right back to his younger days on New York’s streets.

Harry tells me,

keeps telling me,

tells me again of his talks with the City about what 20 years of picking up garage can do to the body. No matter when you come in. It’s his job, it’s his conviction, and it’s his shoulder reminding him to keep the City aware of what’s really happening daily on the job. Harry may never ever meet Roy, but he got his stories in his bones.

:::

Roy’s the kind of guy that all the girls likes, and he’ll never know it. Well, he might know it, but he’s not the kind of guy that really believes it. He’s the guy that’s always one eyebrow raised and grinning underneath it. He’s offering to pick up the check and acting like ‘he’s all good.’ And you’ll think so, because he has a smile as wide and as young as a Christmas morning.

He hangs his head a lot, moving forward down the street, but call his name and the sparkle of a kid that can get away with anything when he needs to perks up. He flies under the radar because he’s mischievious but never causing trouble, never harmful. He’s not a player, but he could be. But he won’t. Because he wants something different.

One thing’s for sure – there are a few chicks out there all married up now and spending quiet moments thinking about that Roy DiMaggio as the One That Got Away.

:::

He’s got a mop of black hair and blue eyes. He’s about 5’9” when he walks proud. He’s light on his feet and has a steady pace. He saves his energy, as most of them do, not rushing through the route. Rush and you’re done earlier and have to sit around and do time until your shift is over. Rush and you might have to dump the truck in New Jersey and that’s not always the most fun thing to do. It’s time-consuming and boring. Rush, and you won’t last your 20 years of service.

“I’m 39, you know, some days I can’t get outta bed. But I have to and it’s raining and the rain’s the worst.”

There’s nothing inside him that wants to grow up and wear some suit and be THAT guy in the room.

He wants a couch, some food, the people he loves, a couple of sweet girls that ask him questions about his life, his bigger and louder buddies around him that take the light off him and he’ll always show up on time. He’s nervous when he doesn’t.

His grin … hard to tone down, let me tell you. But it comes and goes as the interview continues. Every third or fourth question, he’s interviewing me.

“Why are you doing this? Why do you care?”

… always with the why, I tell ya.

:::

On the day of the interview, he wears a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath the short sleeved t-shirt. He tells me to meet him at a Starbucks in Bensonhurst. He’s got a cup of coffee, and he’s paging through the Sunday New York Times after the Election Tuesday. It’s a couple of weeks after we shot him working, and I expect his shy, embarrassed way. What I got was a guy that couldn’t stop being curious as to why I was so curious about him.

“So is it just questions about work or my personal life?”

I said, mainly work.

I tried to tell him that I know how weird it seemed. I tried explaining to him that I’m an office manager during the week, and no one comes into my office and says, “Hey, how do you manage all those files and invoices every day all day?”

I know it’s weird.

And yet he still came out on a crisp fall morning to see what it was all about. He knows what he does every day is important. Maybe not every day, but this day, he was going to trust it. He probably was ready for me to be full of bullshit. Maybe he thought … well, I really don’t know what he thought. With every interview, I’m just so grateful. It takes a certain something inside you to meet with a stranger to talk about your life. It takes a certain confidence or curiosity or what-the-hell. Whatever it is, I respect it and I try to just let it breathe its own life into the interview.

I showed him shots of himself and asked him what was his favorite. As I want this book project to help the SanMen and Women see themselves differently – it’s important to me his reaction. To my surprise, he chose one of him in action – chucking recyclables into the back of a truck. He liked seeing himself in motion.

Sometimes, you just don’t know what you do all day long when you’re busy flying underneath the radar.

Sometimes, getting on the other side of yourself can help you stand up a littler straighter.

Here’s hoping Roy’s walking tall somewhere out there in Brooklyn today. For a few minutes anyway. Roy’s not the kind of guy that will ever walk tall for too long. It’s just not him.

He’s got two sons. He could listen to Pearl Jam three days straight. He’s picked up a 3’ foot alligator in Sheepshead Bay. He’s baffled that I’m interested in his life. He’s got a great nickname, and he won’t let me tell you what it is. Not even when I beg.

This is Roy. Roy DiMaggio.

::: ::: :::

Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 10:39 PM

:: The First Blush ::

4 Comments »

:: Mongo from the Interview with Roy DiMaggio ::

Roy’s Stats:

Age: 39

Residence: Brooklyn

Years on the Job: 9

Favorite Music: I could listen to Pearl Jam for three days straight.

What do you think about on the route?

Getting the day over with.

What do you assume about people by what they throw out?

We don’t want to see most of it. They don’t take care, don’t use liners to throw things away, everything’s discarded, and we see it. People aren’t too clean. Some people’s diets are like heavy garbage … fruits, a lot of fruits with the Chinese. The Hasidics love us, love to watch us, their kids wave to us, greet us, follow us, watch us cycling the hopper.

What do you like about the DSNY?

The hours, pays great, the benefits, the guys – I love listening to the drama, of dealing with the public, you know?

What do you not like about the DSNY?

All the technicalities, makes it difficult. The rain is the worst. The public.

What did you do before you joined Sanitation?

Oh, a million jobs.

What do people say about Sanitation Workers?

That we’re not respecting, that we’re lazy – bringing in 450k bags of garbage and construction! We’re not supposed to pick that stuff up! We won’t get into trouble, but a supervisor comes out and explains it to the resident that he put it out wrong. It creates trouble. I have a 1000 houses.

But when it snows, they love us, even when we have to leave the garbage and plow the streets. We’re an emergency arm of the city then.

I’ve been threatened, had a gun in his car. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. It was Sunday – we were picking up leaves in the morning. This guy was partying, and there wasn’t enough room for him to pull around the truck. There was enough room. This gentleman gets out of his car – 15 minutes or so, and all of a sudden, he wants to fight.

What do you want to do after you retire?

I want to open up a candy store, do my hobbies. I just want to sell stuff. I had an ice cream parlor. It didn’t work out. I don’t want to be tied down – eh, I’m dreamin’.

What’s your worst day on the job?

Night shift, in the winter. Need a heat blanket on me when it’s 6, 10 below zero, and the heater’s blowing cold air ’cause it can’t get hot enough.

Where’s “New York’s Strongest” come from?

We see a lot of stuff happening. A prostitute gets slapped by their bosses, we see it. We see the stuff happening before the cops get there. Sometimes you just close your eyes.

Who takes out the trash at home?

I do. I hate doing it.

Who cleans up after you?

I clean up after myself, do my own laundry.

Are you a loader or driver? Recycling or regular trash?

I like my work. I’ve got seniority, I’m a loader. I prefer doing garbage to recycling.Yeh, it’s heavier, but recycling is more demanding, don’t like it, more bending. It’s not organized, and it takes longer.

Why do you guys talk so much?

I don’t really, unless you were with me [making me talk].

Who’s got your back?

That’s a good question. Nobody has my back but myself. I don’t think anybody.

::: ::: :::

Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 12:20 PM

:: The Latest ::, :: The Mongo ::