You Asked

The Times does not mince words:

What could require, in the words of the official news release, such “state-of-the-art, high-volume refuse containers” that are triple the cost of the older, dumpier $500 garbage cans?

In a word, Chinatown.

. . .

Summertime can be especially grim, said [Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation Executive Director] Mr. [Wellington] Chen, who as a teenager once packed and shipped women’s wigs in a sweaty Canal Street warehouse. Streams of water from fish markets, spilled food, graffiti and dilapidated storefronts are vivid, and largely unwanted, impressions of Chinatown for visitors, Mr. Chen said.

New garbage cans are only the beginning, he said.