#‘It looks like a garbage dump’: UWS workers tackle the trash-filled streets

John Tsiamtsiouris and his diner staffers sweep the streets
Helayne Seidman

With the Upper West Side besieged by quality of life complaints, locals are fighting back. Staffers at three UWS restaurants are being dispatched  to literally sweep the streets.

“It’s gotten bad the past month. Sometimes it looks like a garbage dump,” said 36-year-old John Tsiamtsiouris, co-owner of City Diner, Metro Diner and Manhattan Diner, of the neighborhood. So for the past week, he and his employees met each morning to pick up litter on Broadway from 90th to 100th streets.

“We’re doing something to try to make it better,” said Tsiamtsiouris, who lives on 96th street and whose family has owned diners in the neighborhood for three decades.  “Maybe others will jump in and help reclaim our neighborhood.”

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They’ve certainly taken notice.

“There’s been more trash on the street than before and it contributes to the general sense of disorder,” said longtime UWS resident Dashiell Feiler, 30.  “I felt a sense of community when I saw the crew out there.”

Diner employee Nicole Psomas is proud to be part of the broom brigade: “The city isn’t taking care of what they need to, so we’re stepping up. It’s clean now and people are excited about it. Upper West Siders take pride in their streets. It’s their home.”