Salvatore Annerino, retired district superintendent (interviewed by Quin DeLaRosa)
Mr. Annerino served a 20-year career with DSNY, from 1985 to 2005. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he distinguished himself as a dedicated member of the World Trade Center recovery and cleanup efforts. He worked alongside others in the vicinity of Ground Zero from September 12, 2001, until the last piece of steel was removed many months later. Mr. Annerino founded and continues to manage the WTC DSNY Emergency Response Division pages on Facebook, which track the long-term impact of the 9/11 work on DSNY personnel and their families. // Interviewed in Spring 2021
Jack Behan, retired sanitation worker (interviewed by Anna Weinreich)
Mr. Behan grew up on Staten Island and was a sanitation worker from 1987 until 2007. Jack likes to emphasize that when he started working with the DSNY, he came on the job as an old-timer because his fascination with the work dates back as far as 1963. He was four years old when he started watching garbage trucks from the window of his family home in Staten Island, and he wasn’t much older when he started hanging out at the local Sanitation garage. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Martin Bellew, retired director of the Bureau of Waste Disposal (interviewed by Maggie (Langlinais) Lee)
Mr. Bellew, a Bronx native, worked for DSNY for twenty-two years. He began on the trucks as a sanitation worker and was promoted all the way up to become the director of Waste Disposal. Following the 9/11 attacks, he oversaw the reopening of Fresh Kills landfill for the city’s investigation and recovery operations, and was pivotal in organization and management of the work. // Interviewed in Spring 2012
Hansine Bowe lived on Fresh Kills before it was a landfill (interviewed by Margaret Fraser)
Mrs. Bowe was born and raised on Staten Island. When she was a child, she and her family lived a few acres of land that her parents owned on Richmond Avenue, which later became Fresh Kills landfill and is now Fresh Kills Park. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Paul Brown, three-star chief, Personnel Management Division, DSNY (interviewed by Navdeep Kaur)
Mr. Brown began his career with DSNY in 1999 at the Manhattan 9 garage, which serves West Harlem. On the job for less than two years when the 9/11 attacks happened, he was one of the sanitation workers tasked with clearing debris and material from lower Manhattan. // Interviewed in Spring 2021
Angelo Bruno & Susan Tedesco-Bruno, retired sanitation worker and his wife (interviewed by Emily Haidet)
Mr. Bruno was a sanitation worker out of Manhattan 2, which serves the West Village in New York City, for 31 years. When he retired, he and his partner Eddie Nieves were interviewed for StoryCorps (their interview was also animated for StoryCorps). His wife Susan is well-acquainted with the kinds of sacrifices that Sanitation families must make as a matter of course. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Joey Calvacca, retired sanitation worker (interviewed by Lana Povitz)
Mr. Calvacca was born and raised in Queens, New York. DSNY is a family legacy: his grandfather retired from Sanitation in the 1950s. When recycling started in New York City in 1989, Mr. Calvacca made an impression on the public and media alike with the customized chrome and pristine shine he gave to his recycling truck. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Gloria Coletti, executive assistant to the director of Fresh Kills landfill (interviewed by Lexie Russo)
Mrs. Coletti’s career with DSNY was spent entirely at Fresh Kills, which gives her a unique perspective on its history across a quarter of a century. Following the 9/11 attacks, she became a liaison between the Department and members of the public who were seeking answers about the investigation and recovery work taking place at Fresh Kills. // Interviewed in Spring 2021
Dennis Diggins, former First Deputy Commissioner, DSNY (interviewed by Ghalia Alhammadi and Charlotte Morlie)
Mr. Diggins served the Department of Sanitation for 35 years, starting as a sanitation worker in 1986. As he was promoted up through the ranks, his career was concentrated within the Bureau of Waste Disposal and the operations of Fresh Kills landfill. He retired in 2019 as DSNY’s First Deputy Commissioner. Following the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Diggins oversaw the reopening of Fresh Kills landfill for the city’s investigation and recovery operations, and was pivotal in its organization and management. // Interviewed in Spring 2021
Phillip Gleason, assistant commissioner for Waste Management Engineering, DSNY (interviewed by Maggie Schreiner)
Mr. Gleason has been part of the Department’s work at Fresh Kills landfill and now Freshkills Park since the early 1980s. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Javier Gomez, sanitation worker in Brooklyn 7 (interviewed by Cristiana Baik)
Mr. Gomez, who came on the job in 2004, works in the Sanitation district that covers parts of Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, and Sunset Park, neighborhoods in Brooklyn, NY. As it happens, he also grew up in Sunset Park. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Eloise Hirsh, Freshkills Park Administrator (interviewed by Shanna Farrell)
Ms. Hirsh has long experience in public service, both in New York City and elsewhere. She worked in the Lindsay administration in New York, was eventually named Director of City Planning in Pittsburgh, and she returned to New York to take on the extraordinary challenge of helping to transform a large landfill into a world-class park. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Raj Kottamasu, former Freshkills Park Arts Programming and Grants Manager (interviewed by Katie Fortunato)
Mr. Kottamasu worked as the Parks Department’s Arts Programming and Grants Manager for Freshkills Park from 2008 to 2012. // Interviewed in Spring 2012
Sandy McCaffrey, nurse at the DSNY Clinic (interviewed by Rachel Greer)
Mrs. McCaffrey was born in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, to a large coal-mining family. She moved to New York City when she was 17 to attend the nurse’s training program at Kings County Hospital, where she graduated at the top of her class. She started working with the DSNY in 1985. Mrs. McCaffrey died of 9/11-related illness in 2021. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Michael Mucci, retired director of the Bureau of Waste Disposal (interviewed by Demetra Maragos)
After his appointment as a sanitation worker in 1981, Mr. Mucci was steadily promoted up through the ranks; when he retired in 2011, he was the four-star chief in charge of Waste Disposal. Following the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Mucci oversaw the reopening of Fresh Kills landfill for the city’s investigation and recovery operations, and was pivotal in its organization and management. // Interviewed in Spring 2021
Marc Murphy, sanitation worker and shop steward at Manhattan 2 (interviewed by Catherine Falzone)
Mr. Murphy has been at the Manhattan 2 garage for seven years, where he is often partnered with Eddie Nieves. When he’s not at work, Mr. Murphy coaches high school football. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Ted Nabavi, chemist and engineer with the Department of Sanitation (interviewed by Chelsea Trembly)
Mr. Nabavi was closely involved with the technical and engineering requirements of Fresh Kills while it was a landfill and continues to work closely with the Department of Parks as the land is transformed into Freshkills Park. His interview details will be part of the Oral History Projects website shortly. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Edwin Nieves, sanitation worker in Manhattan (interviewed by Jacqueline Colognesi)
Mr. Nieves started working for the DSNY since 1985. He had experience with every kind of equipment and every kind of weather. He and Angelo Bruno were partners for many years and were featured on StoryCorps when Mr. Bruno retired. Mr. Nieves is now retired. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Andre Ramos, sanitation worker in Manhattan 2 (interviewed by Giovanny Castro)
Mr. Ramos grew up in the multicultural intensity of New York’s Lower East Side. The insights he gleaned from living in that neighborhood have served him well in his career with the DSNY. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Joey Rivera, sanitation worker in Manhattan 6 (interviewed by Mario Cancel-Bigay)
Mr. Rivera grew up in Brooklyn, NY and had experience with many elements of Sanitation life. Mr. Rivera passed away a few years after this interview. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Joseph Siano, a past president of the DSNY Columbia Association, was a retired sanitation worker (interviewed by Hilary Crow)
Mr. Siano came to the DSNY when he was 38, after some time at Brooklyn College, a year in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, and some years working as a pipefitter. A large part of Mr. Siano’s work with DSNY was defined by his involvement with the Department’s fraternal associations. As president of Sanitation’s Columbia Association, he was integral in strengthening one of DSNY’s strongest benevolent societies, and he continued to serve the Columbia Association as the Special Advisor to the President after his term ended. Mr. Siano died a few years after this interview. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Chris Sullivan, a sanitation worker in Queens 8 (interviewed by Cassie Brewer)
At the time of this interview, Mr. Sullivan worked in central Queens. His interview details will be part of the Oral History Projects website shortly. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Will Walsh & Dawn Toledo-Walsh, a sanitation worker (Queens West 5A) and his wife (interviewed by Samantha Rijkers)
At the time of this interview, Mr. Walsh had been on the job for five years as a broom operator out of Queens. Before he was with the DSNY, he worked in retail. Mrs. Toledo-Walsh is a manager for RAWartists, a national artists’ collective. // Interviewed in Spring 2011
Frank Zito, retired Supervisor (interviewed by Christine Olson)
Mr. Zito began his twenty-year career with the DSNY in 1990 as a san worker out of the Brooklyn 17 Garage. After being promoted to Supervisor, he became a marine dispatcher working in “the Tower” at Fresh Kills Landfill and oversaw the flow of garbage barges in and out of the landfill, including during the cleanup following 9/11. After the closing of Fresh Kills Landfill, Mr. Zito was transferred to the DSNY’s Manhattan offices and continued there until his retirement in 2010. // Interviewed in Spring 2012