OPINION: Creating commercial waste zones would be a mistake, just ask Los Angeles
It’s not often that we in Brooklyn can learn from other cities, but today’s lesson is about garbage, which every city generates and struggles to manage.
A quick look at Los Angeles should send off alarm bells for Brooklyn and its small businesses. LA just implemented a new system for commercial waste — seven years in the making — that has disrupted these essential services, dramatically increased prices and closed local companies.
For the last year, the de Blasio administration has begun planning for a similar system of geographic zones and promising benefits that are largely uncertain. Like others throughout the city, Brooklyn businesses currently benefit from competition for waste-related services — lower prices, and better services, from efficient, well-regulated companies — that would be compromised through the administration’s proposal.