Mayor Adams Establishes Historic Levels of Permanent DSNY Funding for Clean Public Spaces as Part of "Best Budget Ever," Expands "Second Shift" Program

May 8, 2025

Watch video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuAA0INsdvU

Mayor Adams Baselines Over $32 Million Annually to Keep New York City Clean

Investment Includes Highest Level of Permanent Funding for Litter Basket Pick-Ups in City History, Reaching $31 Million in FY 2028

Mayor Adams Celebrates Expansion of "Second Shift," Providing Dedicated Staff to Clean NYC Parks During Evening, Weekend Hours

Follows Mayor Adams' "Budget Week," Unveiling "Best Budget Ever," Which Invests in Affordability, Public Safety, and Quality-of-Life Issues New Yorkers Care Most About

New York – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today committed over $32 million in permanent funding for the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to keep New York City clean as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Executive Budget, better known as the "Best Budget Ever." This decision permanently allocates resources to key aspects of Mayor Adams' cleanliness agenda for years to come. Historically, key cleanliness programs like litter basket service have been set year-to-year, with funding facing threats and uncertainty each year, but with this allocation, the Adams administration is establishing permanent high levels of funding to protect the cleanliness and quality of life of city neighborhoods for generations to come.

Mayor Adams also celebrated the expansion of the second shift of evening and weekend staff at dozens of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) locations. First announced during his fourth State of the City address earlier this year, funded in the FY 2026 Preliminary Budget, and building on his recent announcement that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has created a new Quality of Life Division, the Adams administration has added a second cleaning shift to 100 new "hot spots" in 64 parks across the five boroughs – bringing the total number of hot spots with seconds shift cleaning to 200 at 121 parks – ensuring these parks are cleaned each afternoon between Thursday and Monday. As part of the second shift, NYC Parks staff will also keep restrooms open, on average, for an additional two hours each day, five days a week. This investment doubles the number of locations serviced by a second cleaning shift as part of the FY 2025 Adopted Budget and will help allow more families to enjoy safe, clean, accessible parks.

"Today, we are making life in New York City cleaner and safer," said Mayor Adams. "As part of our 'Best Budget Ever,' we have baselined over $32 million in funding to keep New York City clean, and this includes the highest level of permanent funding for litter basket pick-ups in our city's history. In addition to our streets, our parks are critical to the fabric of our neighborhoods and to the families who live in those communities, so with this announcement, we're also deepening our commitment to improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers by shifting our parks maintenance up a gear and expanding our 'second shift' evening and weekend park cleaning teams and nearly doubling the number of parks that will receive this intensive cleaning. New Yorkers deserve clean streets and parks, and this investment is yet another way we're making New York City the best place to raise a family."

"One of our most important missions as public servants must be to show New Yorkers that we care for every community – that every street and every park are attended to and clean," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Jeff Roth. "This budget helps us achieve that – with new staff to clean park hotspots so that bathrooms and heavily-trafficked areas are clean for morning runners and evening grillers alike, and the highest level of permanent funding for litter basket pickups in history. This is government doing its job: Making life better for everyone."

"DSNY serves every part of the city, and in my 26 years at the department, I've seen thousands of Sanitation workers take pride in a clean street," said DSNY Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan. "New Yorkers deserve clean streets day after day, year after year – and cleanliness shouldn't be held hostage to annual one-shot funding. An end to those days can't come soon enough, and I want to thank Mayor Adams for giving New York's Strongest the tools we need to make the city shine."

"Clean, well-maintained parks make communities safer and enhance quality of life for all New Yorkers. That's why it's so important that we're adding additional evening and weekend maintenance staff to address litter and restroom cleanliness, ensuring that 200 park hotspots are kept clean during the busiest hours," said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. "We're grateful to the administration for funding dedicated evening and weekend peak-hour cleaning staff for the first time in our history, and for making clean and welcoming greenspaces a top priority."

The second shift was first announced by Mayor Adams in November 2022 as part of the "Get Stuff Clean" initiative, which dedicated $14.5 million in new funding to multiple agencies to create a cleaner city through a major upgrade to cleanliness protocols across the five boroughs. Traditionally, dedicated NYC Parks staff have cleaned parks during the first shift, Monday to Friday, in the mornings and in afternoons, with late afternoon and weekend maintenance achieved through the use of overtime and the work of seasonal and part-time staff. The new, permanent second shift created under the Adams administration represents the first full-time dedicated staff for evening and weekend peak hours in the history of the department.

New Yorkers across all five boroughs will enjoy "second shift" workers. These parks include:

• Claremont Park, Crotona Park, Macombs Dam Park, Soundview Park, and St. Mary's Park in the Bronx.
• Canarsie Park, Commodore Barry Park, Marine Park, Prospect Park, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
• East River Park, Highbridge Park, Marcus Garvey, Morningside Park, and Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan.
• Highland Park, Hunters Point South, Kissena Park, Rockaway Beach, and Roy Wilkins Park in Queens.
• Clove Lakes Park, Fairview Park, Silver Lake Park, Willowbrook Park, and Wolfe's Pond Park on Staten Island.

Today's announcement on baselined funding for cleanliness initiatives includes $29.7 million in FY 2026, growing to $31 million in FY 2028, to continue the current level of litter basket pick-ups citywide annually. This is the highest baselined level of funding for litter basket service in history as basket service has often been negotiated year-to-year at the last minute, with funding reductions leading directly to more overflowing baskets and more rats.

The DSNY Lot Cleaning Unit, responsible for maintenance of city-owned or maintained vacant lots, is now baselined at $820,000 for FY 2026, growing to $1.6 million in FY 2029, preventing these areas from becoming eyesores and attracting pests.

Further, the Targeted Neighborhood Task Force is baselined at $3.6 million, growing to $6.3 million annually in FY 2029. This funding will support almost 60 employees who provide regularly scheduled cleaning of often neglected pedestrian spaces where DSNY did not have jurisdiction, like underpasses, greenways, and step streets. Through this program, over 1,500 locations across the city are receiving regular, scheduled cleaning for the first time.

Additionally, today's announcement also baselines $1.4 million to support 18 DSNY positions dedicated to cleaning park perimeters – part of Mayor Adams' "Get Stuff Clean" initiative – that will now continue permanently. Finally, this initiative also includes $1.1 million in permanent funding for DSNY's Precision Cleaning Initiative, which provides targeted cleaning to high-need areas and assists with Mayor Adams' interagency homeless encampment taskforce.

This commitment to long-term funding is one of many parts of the Adams administration's 'Trash Revolution,' which aims to permanently end the dominance of trash and rats on city streets:

• In October 2022, the Adams administration kicked off the Trash Revolution by changing set-out times for both residential and commercial waste from 4:00 PM – one of the earliest set-out times in the country – to 8:00 PM in April 2023, while also allowing earlier set-out if the material is in a container. This incentivization of containerization was paired with major changes to DSNY operations, picking up well over a quarter of all trash at 12:00 AM rather than 6:00 AM, particularly in high density parts of the city, and ending a practice by which up to one-fifth of trash had been purposefully left out for a full day.
• Later that month, DSNY published the "Future of Trash" report, the first meaningful attempt to study containerization models in New York City, and the playbook to get it done.
• In August 2023, containerization requirements went into effect for all food-related businesses in New York City. These businesses – restaurants, delis, bodegas, bars, grocery stores, caterers, and more – produce an outsized amount of the type of trash that attracts rats.
• That same month, installation of the initial 10-block, 14-school Manhattan Community Board 9 pilot containers began.
• In September 2023, commercial containerization requirements extended to chain businesses of any type with five or more locations in New York City. These chain businesses tend to produce a large total volume of trash.
• In February 2024, Mayor Adams unveiled a new, automated, side-loading garbage truck and a new data-driven containerization strategy, affirming a commitment from Mayor Adams' 2024 State of the City address to set New York City on the course to store all trash put out for pickup in containers. This truck was unveiled four years earlier than industry experts thought possible.
• On March 1, 2024, container requirements went into effect for all businesses – of every type – in New York City to get their trash off the streets and into a secure bin.
• On November 12, 2024, container requirements went into effect for low-density residential buildings – those with one to nine units – containerizing approximately 70 percent of all trash in the city.
• Last month, installation of Empire Bins – stationary on-street containers – began in Manhattan Community Board 9 for the first full-district containerization pilot, serviced by new, automated side-loading trucks. This will make West Harlem the first fully-containerized area using on-street containers in North America.

Mayor Adams' "Best Budget Ever" – the balanced, $115.1 billion FY 2026 Executive Budget makes new investments safer, more affordable city that is the best place to raise a family. Through strong fiscal management, the Adams administration has, once again, set the table for strategic investments that protect funding for critical services, invests in public safety by allocating funding for key criminal justice reform programs, and puts the NYPD on track to reach a uniformed headcount of up to 35,000 officers by the fall of 2026. Additionally, this budget increases affordability by building more affordable housing, fulfilling massive generational projects, and expanding educational opportunities like early childhood education and universal after-school for New York City's children and their families, among other initiatives, all while maintaining record-high reserves and ensuring a strong fiscal future for the City of New York.