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June held a lot of changes for the SoHo streetscape, bringing new bins, planters, and blooms to our District. The new receptacles by Citbin are located along Broadway’s cross streets and are a part of New York City’s ambitious efforts to containerize trash, including the public litter collected by the SoHo Broadway Initiative and other business improvement districts. Containerization keeps trash bags out of reach of rodents and off the streets, improving sanitation, pedestrian circulation, and aesthetics for the City.
Now that the bins have been in operation for over a month, we are excited to report that the containers have kept over 3,500 bags of trash off SoHo’s busy sidewalk corners in their first month of use. These past weeks have given us a glimpse at a future New York City without thousands of trash bags cluttering the sidewalks and creating obstacles, odors, and hazards for pedestrians.
In addition to the direct sanitation impacts of the containers, the Initiative has taken this opportunity to add greenery to the district. The new bins all feature an innovative green roof planted with sedum and allium. In addition, large planters with ornamental shrubs and summer annuals have also been installed adjacent to the bins and in curb extensions, adding some much-needed green (with pops of color) to Broadway and our cross streets, while enhancing protection from vehicles for pedestrians and the containers. These plantings are maintained by The Horticultural Society of New York under contract with the Initiative and are thriving during this warm and wet summer.
We are so grateful to the SoHo Broadway Clean Team for enthusiastically bringing this new approach into reality and taking the operational hanges in stride. Cheers to our partners at Citbin, The Hort, and the New York City Department of Sanitation and Department of Transportation for making these efforts possible. Here’s to a cleaner, greener, more beautiful SoHo!
View more images of the new Citibins and planters below! All photos by Mara Zalite Photography.
