The city will serve up a Thanksgiving quality-of-life ticket-writing blitz, The Post has learned.
Sources said that the Department of Sanitation and the Police Department will start the crackdown on trash and traffic violations over the holiday weekend.
“The Grinch is coming,” fumed Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) of the Turkey Day summons double-whammy. “The purpose of this is to blitz.”
The Sanitation Department calls its initiative “Operation N.I.C.E.” or Neighborhood Intensive Cleanup Effort. But Felder and others said there’s nothing nice about the program, since it hits homeowners and businesses at the peak of shopping season.
And a City Hall source criticized the NYPD’s annual “Operation Move-Along,” a zero-tolerance program aimed at keeping traffic moving.
“We’ve advocated for better vigilance to catch the graffiti taggers, the litterers and the illegal dumpers,” said Councilman Mike McMahon (D-S.I.), chairman of council’s Sanitation Commission. “If that’s the purpose, great. But I fear it will not be.”
Fines for dirty sidewalks range from $100 to $300, while fines for people caught littering can be as high as $450.
The Sanitation Department defended the N.I.C.E. program, saying that enforcement is only a small part of its approach to cleaner streets, which also includes community outreach.
“This is not a punitive program,” said Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins.
Of the 18 areas targeted by Operation N.I.C.E. – community boards identified as having a “low cleanliness level” – nine are in Brooklyn, three are in The Bronx, two are in Queens and four are in Manhattan.
Felder complained about the way the neighborhoods were chosen, saying that the rating system relies on inspections of just a few streets, rather than an entire neighborhood.
But not everyone called Operation N.I.C.E. a Thanksgiving turkey.
“Any coordinated effort from the city to return the streets to cleanliness that restores responsibility to store owners and reinforces respect from residents is to be applauded,” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz told The Post.
Meanwhile, the NYPD’s Operation Move-Along focuses on traffic infractions such as double-parking and unauthorized use of bus lanes.
“The problem with any zero-tolerance enforcement is that you’re removing the discretion of the officers to decide if it makes sense or not,” Felder said.
The NYPD had no comment.
In observance of Thanksgiving tomorrow
* No mail delivery except for Express Mail and Special Delivery.
* Most post offices and all local and state offices and courts closed.
* The James A.Farley Post Office at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street is open from 8 a.m.to 9 p.m.
* Banks and financial markets closed in New York and Connecticut.
* Alternate-side parking suspended.
* No street cleaning,garbage collection or recycling pickup.
* New York subways and buses,the Staten Island Ferry and Staten Island Rapid Transit run on holiday schedule.
The Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority is on Sunday schedule.
* The LIRR operates on Sunday schedule.PATH,Metro-North and NJ Transit are on holiday schedules.No
service on Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines.