By MATTHEW MUSOLINO
NYC’s Department of Sanitation has adjusted its snow removal strategies, manpower and equipment management as it prepares for the 2026-27 winter season, Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson told a City Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management hearing on November 2.
The Department has converted an additional 2,000 vehicles into snowplows and added over 700 new salt spreaders. It has also added 129 sanitation workers and called upon 93 more supervisors compared with last year. An additional class of 40 sanitation workers joined the department in October.
“Higher headcount gives us greater flexibility to assign multiple functions…including plowing, collection, and clearing pedestrian areas,” Anderson said.
Anderson discussed how the department will transition into a late night and early morning schedule during a snow storm. The department has added eight new snow plow sector routes in the hilliest parts of Staten Island, reducing the mileage per route by more than 25%.
Council Member Justin Sanchez pointed out that many homeowners failed to remove snow from their private properties. According to the NYC Administrative Code, every owner, or other person having responsibility for a property or building, must clean snow and ice from the sidewalks adjacent to or in front of their properties.
Anderson said the department issued over 19,000 violations during the two snow storms in 2026. Violation penalties for failing to clear the property owner’s sidewalk start at $100 with maximum fines at $250. “If you own property in New York City, you have to keep your sidewalk clean,” Anderson said. “That’s the basic premise of owning property in a city like New York City.”
Gravesend resident Daniel Scaco owns a large corner property and says he maintains it when it snows. “I have to be diligent and thorough when removing snow during storms,” Scaco said, “before the public and the sun rises in order to properly remove all the snow.”
Scaco said it is frustrating that some other residents and neighbors do not remove snow because it creates a hazardous situation for people in the area, forcing people to walk in the street. “There has to be some type of enforcement to make sure properties are tended to.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has expanded the city’s established snow shoveling program. The mayor raised the city’s pay to a $30 per hour and $45 per hour if overtime is reached. There is also a paid four-hour orientation session for participants in the program.. The orientation educates shovelers on where and when to report and how to work safely. According to nyc.gov, shovelers helped the City clear 135,000 crosswalks, 34,000 bus stops and 29,000 fire hydrants in 2026.
Council member Lincoln Restler, who represents parts of northern Brooklyn, including areas next to the BQE, criticized the Department of Transportation for failure to clean up the highway adequately during snow storms. “I think it’s supposed to be DOT’s responsibility [to clean the BQE] but they never do anything,” Restler said. “It should be the Department of Sanitation’s job to do it, and we know it’ll get done that way.”
Anderson replied, “We don’t do that because that’s DOT.” He added, “We are going to work with DOT to make sure that we have the right resources and equipment allocated to the assets that they also maintain. When we have more emergency snow shovelers, and we have the additional mechanized equipment, we will be able to get to more places more quickly.”
Anderson stated that bus stops are going to be a major priority for the Department of Sanitation for the upcoming winter. There are 20,000 priority corners throughout NYC, where pedestrians have been killed or severely injured.
Council Member Ty Hankerson introduced a law to allow the publication of snow plowing operations data. This bill would require the Department of Sanitation, in collaboration with the Departments of Transportation and of Information Technology and Telecommunications, to publish, preserve, and maintain a website of historical and current snow plowing operations data.
Websites such as PlowNYC already track plowing vehicles across the city in real time. Users of the site also can view a summary of property owners snow clearing responsibilities, can read our borough-based snow plans and get links to submit 311 service requests.
The National Weather Service predicts that the city will be facing an El Niño effect during the 2026-2027 winter season. El Niño is a climate pattern in which sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become unusually warm, leading to more extreme weather.
An El Nino could reduce the severity and time snow will remain on the ground because of its warmer climate. “So just because there’s an El Nino, and it’s supposed to be warmer in general, doesn’t mean we can’t have the conditions that would allow for a heavy winter storm to generate,” Anderson said. “Our goal is to be as equitable as possible.”