NEW YORK—Sunset Park residents are getting some much-needed relief from the daily hustle of alternate side parking. The neighborhood is one of the first to take advantage of a new city provision, which allows neighborhoods with consistent cleanliness ratings to apply for a reduction in the number of times the sanitation vehicles clean the streets every week.
Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn was joined on Tuesday by Department of Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, city council members and community board representatives on Sunset Park’s 44th Street to make the announcement.
“This is great news for New Yorkers and will lessen the burden on drivers to move their cars on street cleaning days,” Quinn said.
Under a new law passed on May 16, community boards, which maintain cleanliness ratings of 90 percent or above for at least two consecutive years are able to apply for a reduction in alternate side parking regulations. The law is not imposed or mandatory and requires the communities to request a reduction. If, once the reduced measures are in effect, the cleanliness ratings drop below 90 percent, the alternate side parking regulations will be restored to the full schedule.
“What we’re seeing here today is really the result of the efforts of the community and what they’ve done to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood by keeping their streets clean,” said Doherty.
The reduction in alternate side parking rules will reduce the number of vehicles circling the streets in search of a parking space on street cleaning days, a boon to local drivers and an opportunity to increase air quality. Sanitation trucks that are freed by the reduction will be able to reach industrial and other areas that could not previously be accommodated.
“This is really important. I think change is difficult for people, but they will adjust,” said Councilwoman Sara M. Gonzalez, a co-sponsor of the bill. “And I love the idea that if it doesn’t work we can go back to having our streets cleaned again.”
Community Board 7 applied for a reduction in alternate side parking as soon as the legislation was passed. Residents have been asking for a change in alternate side parking regulations for over 30 years, but the city did not have a framework in place to accommodate such requests. Community Board 7 passed a cleanliness benchmark based on inspections performed by the mayor’s office of Operations. As a result, Sunset Park is moving from a four-day cleaning schedule to a two-day schedule, with one street cleaning on each side of a street per week.
Three community boards have been part of the pilot program with the Department of Sanitation, two in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. No decrease in street cleanliness levels was recorded and the pilot was considered successful.
“It has improved air quality. It has improved our recycling rates here in the city of New York and individuals are now cleaning their streets because they do not want go back to the time when they had to move their car four days out of the week,” said Councilwoman Letitia James, chairperson of the council’s Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste.
A single car was parked on the side of the street to be cleaned on Tuesday with an orange parking ticket on the windshield, only steps away from the press conference. Plastic Styrofoam cups and dried leaves accumulated beneath the vehicle, as the sanitation sweeper circled it to continue up the block. According to Noel Ruiz, a local resident, trash from Fourth Avenue is regularly carried downhill with wind and water and gets stuck beneath vehicles.
“Its a double edged sword,” Ruiz said.
Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn was joined on Tuesday by Department of Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, city council members and community board representatives on Sunset Park’s 44th Street to make the announcement.
“This is great news for New Yorkers and will lessen the burden on drivers to move their cars on street cleaning days,” Quinn said.
Under a new law passed on May 16, community boards, which maintain cleanliness ratings of 90 percent or above for at least two consecutive years are able to apply for a reduction in alternate side parking regulations. The law is not imposed or mandatory and requires the communities to request a reduction. If, once the reduced measures are in effect, the cleanliness ratings drop below 90 percent, the alternate side parking regulations will be restored to the full schedule.
“What we’re seeing here today is really the result of the efforts of the community and what they’ve done to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood by keeping their streets clean,” said Doherty.
The reduction in alternate side parking rules will reduce the number of vehicles circling the streets in search of a parking space on street cleaning days, a boon to local drivers and an opportunity to increase air quality. Sanitation trucks that are freed by the reduction will be able to reach industrial and other areas that could not previously be accommodated.
“This is really important. I think change is difficult for people, but they will adjust,” said Councilwoman Sara M. Gonzalez, a co-sponsor of the bill. “And I love the idea that if it doesn’t work we can go back to having our streets cleaned again.”
Community Board 7 applied for a reduction in alternate side parking as soon as the legislation was passed. Residents have been asking for a change in alternate side parking regulations for over 30 years, but the city did not have a framework in place to accommodate such requests. Community Board 7 passed a cleanliness benchmark based on inspections performed by the mayor’s office of Operations. As a result, Sunset Park is moving from a four-day cleaning schedule to a two-day schedule, with one street cleaning on each side of a street per week.
Three community boards have been part of the pilot program with the Department of Sanitation, two in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. No decrease in street cleanliness levels was recorded and the pilot was considered successful.
“It has improved air quality. It has improved our recycling rates here in the city of New York and individuals are now cleaning their streets because they do not want go back to the time when they had to move their car four days out of the week,” said Councilwoman Letitia James, chairperson of the council’s Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste.
A single car was parked on the side of the street to be cleaned on Tuesday with an orange parking ticket on the windshield, only steps away from the press conference. Plastic Styrofoam cups and dried leaves accumulated beneath the vehicle, as the sanitation sweeper circled it to continue up the block. According to Noel Ruiz, a local resident, trash from Fourth Avenue is regularly carried downhill with wind and water and gets stuck beneath vehicles.
“Its a double edged sword,” Ruiz said.
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