Why advocates say Prop. 2 is trash

All the way back in June — when Eric Adams’ indictment was just a twinkle in federal prosecutors’ eyes — Dave warned us all about the mayor’s sinister efforts to rewrite parts of the New York City Charter, basically our local version of the Constitution, for reasons definitely not to do with expanding his own power and gaining leverage in his feud with the City Council.

Well, those chickens have come home to roost: in addition to the presidential race and Proposition 1, aka New York’s Equal Rights Amendment (which you should vote “yes” on unless you think I deserve less bodily autonomy and general legal dignity than checks notes Tim and Dave), next week’s ballot will feature five proposals (Props. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) that would make significant amendments to the City Charter. 

The negative upshot of some of these is pretty obvious — Prop. 4 would slow down and throw a wrench in the process of voting on “any laws respecting the public safety operations of the police, correction or fire departments,” for instance.

But what about Prop. 2, which would seem to take on our collective civic enemy, the piles and piles of unmitigated trash? Aren’t we all always yelling about the city’s ludicrous garbage problem, and generally supportive of its recently ramped up efforts to contain it? The measure will appear on ballots with the following wording:

This proposal would amend the City Charter to expand and clarify the Department of Sanitation’s power to clean streets and other City property and require disposal of waste in containers.

Voting ‘Yes’ will expand and clarify the Department of Sanitation’s power to clean streets and other City property and require disposal of waste in containers. Voting ‘No’ leaves laws unchanged.

Besides the question of whether this expansion of powers is really needed in order to clean up the sidewalks — we managed to finagle those newfangled things called “bins” without cop-ifying the process, after all — there’s a lot more to this than meets the eye, opponents say. Specifically, the “expanded powers” for the Department of Sanitation would include giving the department the authority to remove street vendors, issue fines and confiscate their equipment, according to advocates at the Street Vendor Project. (Cops and Parks Department officials already have and exercise similar powers.)

You can — and should — weigh in on the City Charter

Mayor Adams called the panel to potentially gut the City Council’s ability to govern, but you can be involved.

The New York GrooveDave Colon

As one Bushwick-based street vendor told News12, “This will give further militarization, further policing and terrorizing of vendors that we feel everyday." The Street Vendor Project is currently advocating for an overhaul of the street vendor permitting system, versus blanket policing and enforcement. (Representatives for the Department of Sanitation and the Street Vendor Project weren’t available for comment by press time.)

If you’re confused as to how all that could be buried within the two-sentence ballot description of Prop. 2, you’re not alone. Opponents have expressed frustration about the “disconnect” between how the proposition reads on paper and what it actually will look like in practice. That disconnect is worth noting, given that this election is the first test of a bill signed into law last November requiring that “ballot measures be written in plain and understandable language.” Can language really be considered “plain and understandable” if it fails to convey the full meaning of the measure you’re about to vote on?

Beyond Prop. 2 itself, a number of progressive advocates, notably those at the New York Civil Liberties Union, are making the case that voters should vote no across the board on the various City Charter propositions — #NixTwoThroughSix, as they put it — if for no other reason than the process to get them on the ballot was shady and rushed and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Per the NYCLU:

“At a time of rising concern over the Adams administration’s integrity, these amendments represent an irresponsible and dangerous attempt to give more power to the Mayor. The City Charter is too important to change through a hurried, cynical, and politically-motivated process.”

If this all has you feeling depressed about the cynical state of our local politics and/or the seeming impossibility of making any progress on our city’s endless trash quagmire, we can’t exactly argue with you on that one. But if nothing else, can we offer up the sweet satisfaction of voting in such a way that you potentially squash every single one of Eric Adams’ power-grubbing Election Day dreams?