New York City is currently undergoing a major transformation in its waste management system—a revolution aimed at replacing trash bags piled on sidewalks with sealed containers. While outgoing Mayor Eric Adams initiated much of this shift, the ambitious task of fully containerizing the city’s waste now falls to incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
This massive project promises a cleaner, healthier urban environment, but it has also sparked heated debate over the reallocation of large portions of street space—potentially affecting tens of thousands of parking spots across the city’s five boroughs.
From Sidewalk Trash to Citywide Containers
For decades, stacks of trash bags lining New York City sidewalks have been an unwelcome yet familiar sight. During his term, Mayor Eric Adams took significant steps to address the issue, leading reforms aptly branded as the “Trash Revolution.” His administration required all businesses and residential buildings with fewer than ten units to shift from traditional trash bags to secured, wheeled containers. This policy change has already produced positive results, with reports indicating a noticeable decline in rat sightings and a reduction in the infamous garbage piles that once characterized many city streets.
However, fully realizing the vision of a cleaner city extends well beyond these initial mandates. A large portion of New York’s larger residential buildings still place their waste directly on the curb. This is where incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani takes center stage, tasked with overseeing the next and most comprehensive phase of containerization. The current plan—publicly backed by Mamdani—calls for installing dedicated on-street “Empire Bins” for buildings with more than thirty units. Buildings with eleven to thirty units would be given the option to request these curbside containers or place their own wheeled bins on the sidewalk for collection.
The city’s Department of Sanitation has set an ambitious 2032 deadline to complete this transition citywide. The timeline underscores the scale of the challenge, particularly given New York City’s long-standing struggle over street space. For generations, city leaders have wrestled with whether free parking should take priority over other essential public needs. Past administrations faced intense public backlash when attempting to reallocate street space: former Mayor Bill de Blasio encountered resistance to his “Vision Zero” traffic safety initiatives, while former Mayor Michael Bloomberg faced protests over the expansion of bike lanes.
End of ACA Subsidies Could Double Health Insurance Costs for Millions of Americans
As government subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) near expiration, millions of Americans are likely to shift to plans with lower monthly premiums but significantly higher out-of-pocket costs—or abandon coverage altogether—a development that health policy experts warn could have serious consequences for the entire healthcare system.
According to The Guardian, estimates from an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) show that the average annual amount paid by ACA plan enrollees is expected to more than double, rising from $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026. This increase is expected to trigger broader economic ripple effects, impacting rural hospitals as well as people who receive health insurance through their employers.
Emma Wager, a senior policy analyst with KFF’s healthcare program, explained that if large numbers of Americans drop their health coverage, the consequences will extend beyond those individuals and affect the healthcare system as a whole.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed legislation expanding eligibility for ACA subsidies and increasing their value, which led to a significant surge in enrollment in health insurance plans.
Those enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year, despite efforts by Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans to extend them for three years. Attempts to pass legislation preserving the subsidies have so far failed in the U.S. Senate.
So far, the anticipated expiration of the subsidies has not yet affected enrollment numbers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported that 5.7 million Americans signed up for health insurance during the enrollment period—slightly more than during the same period last year.
However, Natasha Murphy, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, said she believes the full impact will not become clear until after the enrollment period ends on January 15. “We’ll see who actually pays the first premium,” she said. “That’s when the real picture will emerge.”
A recent KFF survey found that one-third of respondents who purchase insurance through the ACA said they would switch to a plan with lower premiums and higher costs if subsidies expire. Meanwhile, a quarter of enrollees said they would drop health insurance altogether.
Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, warned that when insurance premiums rise sharply, “healthy people leave the program, and only the sick remain—until the system ultimately collapses.”