NYC streets and sidewalks are filthy, new state audit finds

Most of New York City’s sidewalks and streets are filthy, a damning new state audit found.

Auditors from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office inspected a sample of 271 “blockfaces” — one side of a city block corner, including the street and sidewalk.

“We determined 189 streets and 159 sidewalks were dirty based on [the Department of Sanitation’s] Operations Scorecard criteria,” the audit covering fiscal year 2015 to 2019 found.

That’s about two-thirds of the streets sampled and a majority of sidewalks.

The filthy findings were consistent across the city:

Brooklyn: Of the 62 blocks inspected, 44 had dirty streets and 39 dirty sidewalks Queens: Of 61 inspected, 47 had filthy streets and 40 dirty sidewalks. Manhattan: Of 50 blocks inspected, 34 had dirty streets and 27 dirty sidewalks. The Bronx: Of 50 blocks inspected, 34 had filthy streets and 28 filthy sidewalks Staten Island: Of 53 blocks inspected, 34 had dirty streets and 28 dirty sidewalks.

The city’s streets were deemed filthy before the COVID-19 lockdown that began in March and only in recent months eased up, and also before Mayor Bill de Blasio slashed more than $21 million for litter basket pickup from the Sanitation Department’s budget amid the fiscal crisis fueled by the pandemic, reducing service from seven to three days a week.

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