By Della Hasselle and Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo Staff
UPPER EAST SIDE — The situation stinks.
Mountains of trash continued to line Manhattan's streets as the Sanitation Department struggled to catch up on collection after last week's blizzard.
Sanitation workers resumed limited trash pick up on Monday, after a week long suspension due to the storm that dumped 20 inches of snow, but on Tuesday piles of black garbage bags, discarded Christmas trees and other trash still lined many streets.
"It's disgusting. It's still piling up, I don't what's going on, said Olga Yusupov, who works as a nurse on the Upper East Side. "The city could do better, much better. I don't know why we pay all these taxes."
"The trash is higher than me," the 5-foot-3 woman said. "In some places, I can't even cross the street."
Alternate side parking was suspended on Tuesday and the city would not be collecting recyclables until further notice, according to the Department of Sanitation's website.
The Sanitation Department was hoping to have the trash picked up and services back to normal by the end of the week but it was little consolation to those navigating the mess.
"It looks like they don't want to bother to pick up the garbage," said Joe Xerri, a super at Olmstead Properties on East 61st Street and First Avenue.
The business hires a private collection company for their own trash but Xerri said the huge piles of everyone else's garbage are attracting vermin.
"When I walk to work at 5 a.m., it's disgusting. I see rats everywhere in the piles of garbage," he said. "You have to walk behind the rats to get anywhere, with the garbage there."
Others took the trash in stride.
"That's what happens when you live in a big city and there's a massive snowstorm," said Amit Patel a doctor living on the Upper East Side.
