{"id":47,"date":"2026-01-29T15:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/?p=47"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:58:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:58:53","slug":"council-member-justin-sanchez-district-17-introduces-first-bill-during-todays-city-council-stated-meeting-and-co-prime-sponsors-two-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/2026\/01\/29\/council-member-justin-sanchez-district-17-introduces-first-bill-during-todays-city-council-stated-meeting-and-co-prime-sponsors-two-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Member Justin Sanchez, District 17, Introduces First Bill During Today\u2019s City Council Stated Meeting and Co-Prime Sponsors Two Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf we are going to have the cleanest streets possible, we need everybody to pitch in,\u201d said Council Member Justin Sanchez. <\/em><\/p>\n

CITY HALL \u2014<\/strong> At the second Stated Meeting of New York City Council\u2019s 2026-2029 term, Council Member Justin Sanchez introduced the first bill of his legislative career. The bill will amend the City Code to designate operators of outdoor furniture units responsible for the removal of trash and offensive materials on and within six feet of their property. <\/p>\n

Permanent and semi-permanent structures such as bus stop shelters, bike share stations, and news stands are a prevalent fixture throughout New York City, but unfortunately many of them have harbored litter, debris, and graffiti. Despite their prevalence, the New York City Department of Sanitation currently lacks clear authority to hold the owners of these entities responsible for maintaining the cleanliness around them. As a result, waste has accumulated in these very public and often used areas. Given the furniture\u2019s status as a hallmark of New York City, the waste leaves a significant impression on residents and visitors alike. When waste piles up, DSNY disposes of it but does so at the expense of other priorities and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are going to have the cleanest streets possible, we need everybody to pitch in,\u201d said Council Member Sanchez. \u201cThis bill makes sure that these vendors are doing their part and allows our Sanitation Staff to continue to focus on addressing areas that they are responsible for such as residential trash and street bins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill formally designates the responsibility of cleanliness of street furniture structures that are installed or placed upon sidewalks, streets, alleys, parks, highways, and rights of ways on to the vendors that own and operate them. Those who are found not to be in compliance will face fines up to $500 for first-time offenses and up to $3500 for repeat offenses.<\/p>\n

Council Member Justin Sanchez represents the 17th Council District of New York City Council and serves as the Chair of the Council\u2019s Sanitation and Solid Waste Management Committee. A primary issue facing residents of District 17 is the presence of litter and illegally-dumped bulk waste. As a Council Member, street cleanliness is a top priority, and he has pledged to use the full authority of his office to examine and develop solutions to improve it. The bill was originally introduced last session by Julie Menin, who now serves as Council\u2019s Speaker.<\/p>\n

In addition to this introduction, Council Member Sanchez Co-Prime Sponsored two other bills that were introduced at today\u2019s Stated Meeting: Council Member Chris Marte\u2019s bill pertaining to maximum working hours for home care aides and Simcha Felder\u2019s bill to require the provision of official waste containers at no cost to certain residential buildings with 3 dwelling units.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to collaborate with and support my colleagues on these very thoughtful pieces of legislation and I\u2019m excited about the real change these bills can bring,\u201d said Council Member Sanchez.<\/p>\n

####<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the second Stated Meeting of New York City Council\u2019s 2026-2029 term, Council Member Justin Sanchez introduced the first bill of his legislative career. The bill will amend the City Code to designate operators of outdoor furniture units responsible\u00a0for\u00a0the removal of trash and offensive materials on and within six feet of their property.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/justin-sanchez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}