Offering perhaps the clearest indication yet of his priorities as a Democratic governor of one of the most liberal states in the country, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo just suggested Tuesday that he might send in the national guard to help pick up trash around the city, infuriating critics who questioned his eagerness to send in the National Guard to act as glorified garbagemen, despite his unwillingness to deploy them during the unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd.
During the lockdown and the months that followed, trash has piled up on some NYC sidewalks. While kvetching about the growing trash pileup, the governor complained that he didn’t know “what was going on” in NYC – which is run by his political rival, Mayor Bill de Blasio – and claimed that he had offered to send in the National Guard to come pick up the garbage if the city couldn’t handle the job.
Complaints about negligent trash pickup have piled up alongside the mountains of garbage, largely thanks to a $106 million cut to the budget of the city’s Department of Sanitation. Complaints about trash piling up in city parks have doubled since last summer, according to Patch.com.
City politicians have demanded the mayor address the problem, which primarily impacts low-income neighborhoods, officials have argued. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --