Meet Downtown Alliance Sanitation Supervisor Carl Homward

Every day at 4:00 AM, Carl Homward begins his hour-long commute from Canarsie, Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan, where he serves as Sanitation Supervisor for the Downtown Alliance.

“It’s actually very relaxing,” he said. “I sit back and meditate about what I need to get done for the day.”

It’s this methodical serenity that has helped Homward rise from street cleaner to maintenance worker to supervisor since starting at the Alliance in 1995.

“Without him,” said Downtown Alliance Director of Sanitation Joe Lanaro, “we wouldn’t get anything done.”

“The best part of the job is being able to help clean up Lower Manhattan,” Homward said. “We have a zero tolerance policy with graffiti by removing it as soon as possible and keeping the streets clean.”

Homward loves the district and often brings his wife of 16 years and four children Downtown to show them all of the changes he has witnessed, such as “buildings that have been taken down, rebuilt and are now beautiful high rises.”

And, he has positive reflections on the impact the last 15 years with the Downtown Alliance have had on him.

“Hard work, improvement, determination, accomplishment and teamwork is the meaning that my job at the Alliance has had in my life,” he said. “That is what I passed on to my kids.”