The New York Sanitation Division (DSNY) swore in its first Black, feminine three-star chief this previous New 12 months’s Eve.
Whereas thousands and thousands of individuals had been in Instances Sq. on December 31 to have fun the beginning of 2024, Cherry Bailey was flanked by family and friends for her swearing in by Mayor Eric Adams and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Bailey was scheduled to take the oath and turn into the primary Black girl to carry the three-star title of Sanitation Division chief: she turned solely the second girl to realize that rank in DSNY’s historical past.
Bailey had traveled a protracted path to get right here. She started working as a sanitation employee at DSNY in November 2005. Her first assignments had been to work in Jamaica and St. Albans, Queens. She’d solely taken the job as a result of it promised job safety, however when she began she questioned if she’d made the proper alternative. “Earlier than I joined DSNY, I had by no means seen a lady on the [sanitation] truck and even doing something sanitation associated. Me, I prefer to have my hair completed and I prefer to maintain my nails, you recognize, a sure size and I prefer to get some polish. I prefer to put on my lipstick and earlier than I got here to sanitation, I didn’t wish to go from that to choosing up soiled, heavy, pungent, trash.”
Born in Barbados, Bailey can keep in mind migrating to Brooklyn, New York at age 16 along with her household. After spending quite a few summer time holidays in New York, her household moved to the town for good. She quickly realized she was transferring from a serene, Caribbean Island the place younger children wore uniforms, to a densely populated metropolis the place children styled themselves within the newest fashions. It was a tradition shock, she stated, as a result of the lifestyle was really completely different.
Initially, Bailey had goals of changing into a lawyer; she needed to make her household proud. “I knew that we got here right here for a special––a greater life. And I used to be simply centered on simply no matter it was that was going to occur for me: I simply needed to make my household proud and never remorse packing up the whole lot and transferring right here and me being a disappointment to them.”
She wound up not heading towards legislation college, and after taking up a number of jobs Bailey entered the airline business to turn into a flight attendant. She stated she was captivated with that job and liked the flexibility to journey throughout. She labored as a flight attendant up till 9/11 when, with the airways furloughing employees, she began seeking to change her profession, in order that she may keep nearer to dwelling and be along with her younger son.
“I’m not going to depart the airways except I discover a job working for the town,” she stated she instructed herself. “Why? As a result of on the time, I knew that metropolis jobs supplied job safety. So, I made it simply my enterprise to exit and simply search metropolis employment.” Bailey turned to the The Chief newspaper for listings of upcoming public service exams. “I didn’t essentially got down to take the take a look at for sanitation. It was simply one other take a look at that was being given on the time and it’s humorous as a result of I both didn’t see it or it missed my eye, however I had a good friend who known as. He knew that I used to be taking all these completely different exams for police officer, bus driver, prepare operator, prepare conductor, [and] bridges and tunnel officer. However sanitation was not one which caught my eye on the time. My good friend, he reached out to me, and stated, ‘Cherry, the job for sanitation will likely be opening quickly.’ And I stated to him, ‘What, choosing up rubbish?’ He stated sure and I stated, ‘No one needs to be a rubbish girl!’ He laughed and he stated, ‘Simply take the take a look at, take the take a look at, and any person’s going to name.’”
Bailey took the examination and scored rather well. In actual fact, her scores on the DSNY and different assessments had gotten her name backs. She turned down a suggestion to work with the police division, as a result of with a younger six-year-old son at dwelling she needed to have the ability to be with him and see to his wants. She did some provisional work as a site visitors enforcement agent after which obtained her name to return take the bodily for DSNY. Bailey handed the DSNY impediment course take a look at and was in a position to move the state business driver’s license take a look at. “By October of 2005, I used to be employed,” she stated. “It was one of the best factor––nicely, I didn’t comprehend it then, proper? I didn’t comprehend it then, however it was the best possible, greatest resolution, neatest thing that has occurred to me in my life.”
Bailey rapidly realized that she was certainly one of only a few girls working within the division. Nonetheless, she stated her co-workers had been high-quality; she by no means felt disrespected. She was inspired and in a position to rise by means of the ranks from supervisor to deputy chief, assistant chief, after which Queens east borough chief. Now, as DSNY’s chief of security and coaching, Bailey is liable for guaranteeing that each one division workers have the operational information to do their jobs safely and successfully.
The job is nice, however thus far certainly one of her fondest reminiscences is being sworn in to take the job in Instances Sq., on New 12 months’s Eve, by the mayor and DSNY commissioner in entrance of household and associates.
“I let you know; it was only a great, memorable, simply an superior, can’t even put it into phrases… Like my commissioner, she simply completely blew me away. I obtained the telephone name: there have been rumors going round within the division from my colleagues. However me, I like to attend till I hear from, for lack of a greater time period, the horse’s mouth. I used to be in tears, tears of pleasure, when Commissioner Tisch introduced me within the workplace, and he or she gave me the great information, I simply couldn’t assist it, as a result of I had flashbacks of simply the whole lot main as much as the place, simply all of the onerous work, and this dedication, and figuring out the place I got here from, and simply making my household proud, and simply to now being extraordinarily, extraordinarily happy with this extremely gifted, hardworking group of people I work with.
“For those who would have instructed me that I’d at some point be the chief of security and coaching, I’d let you know, no, I feel you’ve obtained the improper particular person. Not as a result of I simply couldn’t see myself doing it, however as a result of I didn’t know, I simply had no clue, that there’s simply this complete completely different world right here at Sanitation, that I wasn’t uncovered to again then. Like I stated, how typically do you take note of that rubbish truck simply going by means of the block, and what’s taking place behind the scenes?”
