LMDC President Stefan Pryor addresses the crowd as CPLDC Executive Director Wellington Chen looks on

On Friday, March 31^st, the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation (CPLDC), working together with the City of New York, placed 48 high-end refuse receptacles along Canal Street, Bayard Street, and East Broadway as part of a long-term, fully funded sanitation program called "Clean Streets." The initiative is the result of a survey of more than 3,000 Chinatown residents and businesses that identified improving cleanliness, reducing odors, and removing graffiti as top priorities for the neighborhood.

"This is an incremental component of the sanitation program, and I look forward to its fulfillment as the process moves forward," Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) President Stephan Pryor told reporters at a press conference announcing the trash receptacle initiative. The LMDC contributed $7 million toward the project.

"We plan to keep Chinatown on the map," Deputy Commissioner Michael Bimonte of the New York City Department of Sanitation told the crowd."We plan to keep it clean, we plan to get it cleaner, and we plan to work shoulder to shoulder as partners." New York City Department of Small Business Services Deputy Assistant Commissioner George Glatter added, "It's going to work, and Chinatown is going to shine." Other speakers included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Councilmember Alan Gerson, and Amy Stursberg of the September 11^th Fund, which closed its doors on Friday.

If the initial 48 cans prove successful, the project could be expanded to include a garbage can for every corner in the neighborhood, according to Amy Chin, program consultant for the CPLDC.

Wellington Chen, CPLDC executive director, called on every resident and business owner in 

Sponsor-a-basket supporters stand around one of the new high-end receptacles