New York City is hiring 10-thousand people as part of a major cleanup effort. Workers will be getting rid of graffiti, cleaning up parks and maintaining open streets. The cleanup also focuses on garbage in business districts, commercial streets and the areas hardest hit by COVID. Mayor de Blasio says this is part of the recovery effort.
“We definitely saw more littering on sidewalks during the pandemic. We got to clean that up. We saw more graffiti. We got to clean that up. We got to get to where we were before the pandemic and even better.”
The first five hundred jobs are posted on the city’s website and there will be 10 thousand posted by July. The city is using coronavirus stimulus money to pay workers 15 dollars an hour.
New York City continues to take steps to improve coronavirus vaccine access. Mayor de Blasio says the city is expanding walk up coronavirus vaccine appointments for seniors 75 and older. There are now 25 city locations accepting those walk ins, up from just a few.
“Lots more outreach to the oldest New Yorkers and we will be setting aside appointments at all our city run sites for seniors cause we really need to focus on the folks who are the most vulnerable.”
The city is also now adding a vaccine bus to its mobile fleet to target vulnerable New Yorkers. So far, more than 4.6 million doses have been put into arms in the Big Apple.