UPPER WEST SIDE — More than two dozen heavily trafficked sidewalks along Broadway will soon get extra attention from workers picking up litter and replacing brimming trash bags with fresh ones.
A rotating group of men from the DOE Fund will start staffing the blocks between West 70th and 86th streets and West 96th to 106th streets every day, a spokesman said.
Since September, DOE fund employees have been stationed along West End Avenue between West 86th and 96th streets and on Broadway between West 76th and 86th streets as part of a $3.5 million citywide Clean Streets initiative.
But now the DOE Fund's West End Avenue workers will shift onto a longer stretch of Broadway, after residents complained about the trash problem there. It's not clear exactly when the efforts will begin.
The funding for the clean-up efforts stems from Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal and Councilman Mark Levine's Clean Streets budgets. Councilmembers in other district decided to call for an increase in Department of Sanitation pickups, she said, but Rosenthal believes in the DOE Fund's mission.
DOE Fund workers are formerly incarcerated and homeless men who are trained and housed as they save for other opportunities.
After hearing residents complain about how trash-strewn Broadway gets, Rosenthal said she decided to shift more DOE Fund resources there.
