S’no thank you.
The Mamdani administration failed for hours to attract any emergency shovelers at one Queens garage Sunday — while planning to try to dig out New Yorkers with a fourth of the force the city used for its last mega-storm.
Despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s widespread attempted promotion of the city’s public-fueled emergency shoveling program, a sign-up sheet at the Maspeth Sanitation garages was empty, city workers told The Post during a visit late Sunday morning.
“I haven’t seen anybody sign up yet today. No, no one,” the employee said.
There were also no signs of shovelers lining up for work at 299 South St. at a Sanitation garage on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Workers there declined comment to The Post.
Meanwhile, at another garage in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood, about 35 people had signed up to help cover the large neighborhood before the snow started falling, a worker said.
While city officials said they expect to have attracted a total of 1,400 public shovelers to start round-the-clock shifts beginning Sunday night, that quantity is still a fraction of the 6,454 people who were recruited for the 2015-16 winter season, which saw up to 3,500 shovelers working simultaneously at peak times that period.
This year’s shovelers will see the work be even more challenging than the snow deposited by Winter Storm Fern in January, with parts of the city expected to be hit with up to 28 inches of snow.
The snow is also predicted to be “wetter and heavier” than what New Yorkers have seen in recent years, with meteorologists and Mamdani himself warning shovelers to be careful.
The mayor has recently caught some backlash over the city’s rigorous sign-up requirements for the program.
The New York City Sanitation Department website states that in order to register as an emergency snow shoveler, an applicant must provide two small photos sized 1 to 1.5 square inches, two original forms of ID plus copies and their social security card.
While some have called on Mamdani’s administration to change the requirements so as to allow more people to pick up a shovel, city officials claimed there was little they can do about it.
“We know there has been some press about the requirements, and we want to be clear: As with any employer, the City of New York has a legal obligation under federal law to verify work authorization and maintain proper documentation before issuing payment,” DSNY press secretary Vincent Gragnani told The Post.
“We are not legally permitted to hand out checks without completing that process,” he said.
“Ensuring compliance with employment law isn’t red tape for its own sake — it’s what allows the program to operate responsibly and sustainably, helping keep our city running through the toughest winter days.”
Shovelers earn an hourly rate of $19.14 and the pay jumps to $28.71 an hour after the first 40 hours worked in a week, according to the sanitation department’s website.