HOLDING REPEAT OFFENDERS ACCOUNTABLE: Statement from NYC Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch on City Council Passage of Intro 97

May 23, 2024

Bill will create escalating fines for commercial cleanliness violations: $50 first offense, $300 second offense, $500 thereafter within a 12-month period

Moments ago, the New York City Council passed Intro 97, a bill that gives DSNY the authority to target the worst repeat violators of rules regulating the cleanliness of public space outside commercial properties. In response, NYC Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued the following statement:

"New Yorkers are demanding clean streets, and the Adams Administration is delivering – yet a few chronic bad actors have kept our streets dirty and the rats well fed. A small number of commercial property owners have brazenly broken the basic cleanliness rules over and over again with impunity, including three dozen locations that were fined FIFTY OR MORE TIMES so far in 2024.

"Today's passage of Int. 97 creates the first meaningful escalator in cleanliness fines to target these repeat offenders, even as the Department has reduced fines targeting small businesses in other areas, and we proudly welcome the New York City Council to the Trash Revolution. I thank Speaker Adams, Council Member Ung, and Sanitation Committee Chair Abreu for their partnership on this vital legislation and look forward to our continued work with the City Council to make New York City cleaner and safer for all New Yorkers."