Oct 5, 2007 2:43 pm US/Eastern
NYC Neighborhood Cleans Up On Parking Rule Change
Alternate Side Of The Street Parking Regulation Being Waived In Parts Of Brooklyn
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Under a new plan, you won't have to move your car when sanitation workers are collecting trash if your neighborhood is clean enough. (file)
AP
Cleanliness, at least in one New York neighborhood, might mean better parking.
Under a new Sanitation Department plan, neighborhoods with really, really clean streets can receive a break from one of the greatest afflictions suffered by city car owners: the dreaded alternate side of the street parking regulations.
Last month, Brooklyn Community Board 6 -- the tree-lined residential brownstone areas of Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope—earned the parking perk by consistently scoring 90 percent or higher on the city's twice-monthly scorecard for street cleanliness.
No shifting from one side of the street to the other on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays, an unpleasant slice of urban living parodied in a classic "Seinfeld" episode.
While no other city neighborhoods yet qualify for the plan, Sanitation spokesman Vito Turso said Friday that Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn have expressed an interest and the city is considering it.
"I think it's something that we're going to slowly move throughout the city, as long as the scorecard stays up," Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said at a town hall meeting Thursday night.
But Turso cautioned it's not going to happen overnight: It took years before the city reduced the alternate-side-parking days in the Brooklyn area to twice a week from four times. And residents of Community board 6 aren't enjoying those hassle-free days yet, since the Department of Transportation still needs to order and post new signs.
The city's alternate side parking rules began in the mid-1950s to facilitate mechanized street cleaning. They are suspended only for holidays or lousy weather, with violators subject to a fine and towing.
Easing up on the rules has been made possible by the city's growing cleanliness. In the 1970s, Turso said, only 70 percent of the city's streets were "acceptably clean." This fiscal year that figure was 94 percent.
Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, said "there was a loud and joyful noise made" at the board's packed September meeting when the announcement was made. The reaction was "was one of sheer euphoria," he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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