Alternate-Side Parking is Back

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and we'll wrap it up for today and for this week, with a call in for anyone in New York City with your early reviews of the return of alternate side of the street parking regulations two times a week. 212-433-WNYC. Are the streets any cleaner? Are you as a car owner driving anymore or idling anymore as a result or anything else you want to say about the first two weeks of the return of alternate side parking rules back in effect two times a week? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer.

For some background for those of you who don't know for two years, New Yorkers with cars enjoyed a partial alternate side parking holiday. Mayor de Blasio changed the rules at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so you only had to move your car once a week for 90 minutes for street cleaning even if the parking sign had two days listed on it. As of July 5th Tuesday last week, the city returned to regular alternate side parking rules. Instead of only looking at the bottom day on the parking sign, now both days are designated again for street cleaning.

People who don't move your cars on that top day are now once again eligible for parking tickets. It's really only been 10 days, or for the most part, two weeks of weekdays, and listeners, we want to hear from you with early reviews. Are you happy with the return of street sweeping twice a week because it's already improving the cleanliness of your street? In our 51 council members in 52 week series, dirty streets is actually one of the things that comes up the most often unprompted by me, or does the disruption to your schedule, as a car owner, outweigh the benefits of an additional way of street cleaning in your neighborhood?

From an environmental standpoint, do you find yourself driving more just because you have to move your car anyway? Someone suggested to me the other day that that might be a result of this, somebody might be ready to take a subway or a bus or something to wherever, but I have to move the car anyway, so I'll just drive. 212-433 WNYC. Does that sound like you? 212-433-9692. Department of Sanitation released a TikTok on July 5th, the first day back to full alternate side, begging for driver cooperation. We'll play a 32nd clip of this. The main voice you'll hear is that of sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

Jessica Tisch: Everyday litter gets on the streets of our city and it's crying out to be cleaned up. A single mechanical broom sucks 1,500 pounds of street litter off of New York City streets, but they don't work if you don't move your car for alternate side parking.

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Speaker 3: We need you to do your part, please.

Brian Lehrer: The Department of Sanitation going for the nostalgia factor a bit with that [unintelligible 00:03:26] song. Some people are calling often inside a hoax, like the 1,720 people who signed a change.org petition to add alternate side parking all together, as reported by The New York Times or an unnecessary money grab. According to CBS quoting people, maybe you're one of those 1,720, but give us your early reviews for the return of two times a week alternate side of the street parking regulations in New York City. 212-433-WNYC. It looks like Stacey in Brooklyn has a first-person experience in real-time. Hi Stacy, you're at WNYC.

Stacey: Hi. Oh my God. I'm so happy I got through. I was just sitting on the sidewalk, literally, the garbage truck just went by and I'm saying, what was the reason because the street is still dirty. That's one problem. It's causing a lot of congestion because a lot of people have not moved their cars, and a lot of noise pollution, because there are people behind me that don't know that it's the rules to move. They're like beeping their horns for me to move and I'm literally coming out of my car saying go around. I was like, "Oh my God."

Brian Lehrer: Because you're double parked like people can do during alternate side hours, right?

Stacey: Yes, but it's like three points. It's causing a lot of congestion, the streets are still dirty, and it's noise pollution because people that don't know that I'm here because I have to move my car. They're behind beeping their horns for me to move, and I'm literally like, "You have to go around."

Brian Lehrer: When does it end there, 12 o'clock?

Stacey: Where I'm at, 11:30 to 12:30.

Brian Lehrer: So you have 40 minutes yet to sit out there?

Stacey: Yes, literally.

Brian Lehrer: Stacey, thank you. Good luck out there. Call us again. Blair in Chelsea, you're on WNYC. Hi, Blair?

Blair: Hello there. There's actually two good reasons that it's been put back. The streets need to be cleaner, and it's good that it's returned to twice a week. Both because of revenue enhancement, because about 30% of New Yorkers who own cars and registered them somewhere else, and the city and state moves over $100 million a year because of that. Secondly, you have suburbanite to drive in and park alternate sides. If we had resident only parking, it would deal with both of these problems. Many, many other major cities have it, the city administration's has had their heads in the sand all these years.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, and people anticipating congestion pricing to drive into the Manhattan business district, which also includes some residential areas are definitely asking for residential parking permits, so you don't have to pay a toll just to go home, but that's another show. How about oh, look, Howard in Manhattan, also sitting in your car waiting for alternate side to end. Hi there?

Howard: Yes, I'm sitting in my car. I've been doing this for 20 years. I move my car and last year, I moved it once a week and the street cleaners never came up near Columbia University. I'm sitting in my car as we speak right now, it's eleven o'clock to 12:30 and I haven't moved and nobody's moved because the street cleaners don't come. One time I didn't move my car for three weeks. Last year, we had to move it once because they just never came, no holidays or anything like that.

Furthermore, like Columbia University, the streets on Broadway are filthy because the garbage cans are obsolete. Somebody needs to redesign garbage cans in New York City. In other countries, they have other ways of designing things. The street cleaners don't do anything, it just throws the garbage around. The garbage cans are overflowing with garbage, there's rats everywhere and now, I think you're right. It's a cash grab by the city.

The ticket guy just walked past me, the ticket guy just walked passed me, I'm sitting in my car. He's not giving out tickets because we're sitting here or he's looking for one person who's not here, and the street cleaner just doesn't come. The streets are not getting any cleaner, they weren't clean last year and they're not clean now and now two days a week making everybody completely [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: Interesting.

Howard: COVID's going back up and monkey pox are coming back up, why are we sitting in our cars exposing yourselves again and being out dodging around the place? I thought this is all because of the pandemic they took away the street cleaning.

Brian Lehrer: Howard, thank you very much. By the way, just for clarity, I didn't say it's a money grab, I was quoting people who say it's a money grab, there's one point of view on this. We'll go a little north from Howard to Tina in Harlem. Hi, Tina, you're on WNYC.

Tina: Hey, Brian, thanks for taking my call. I'm a growing, sustaining member by the way [unintelligible 00:08:14].

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Tina: I told your screener three things enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, not the Department of Sanitation, not the cops and not the traffic police are ticketing. Nobody moves their car, nobody's getting a ticket. We're losing a fortune in revenue for the city budget. I'm also a small time landlady responsible for cleaning 18 inches past the curb into the street. I can't reach it, nobody moves their car. A handful of people move their car and the sweeper can't sweep. He just [unintelligible 00:08:50] past the block.

Brian Lehrer: Do you agree with the last caller from a little south of you, that the street sweepers don't even really clean the street from the trash that overflows the sidewalk garbage cans?

Tina: When people move their cars, it's just tremendously affected the street sweepers, but ever since the reinstatement of one day a week, which is over a year now to move the car, nobody's moving. The sweeper does try to go down the street, but he's down the middle of the street.

Brian Lehrer: Howard says, do away with it, you say, enforce it. Interesting contrast. Tina, thank you. Call us again. Here's somebody else sitting in his car, waiting for alternate side to end. David in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, David.

David: Hi, Brian. Good to hear your voice. Howard made a couple of the same points about the sweeper not showing up. Now the two times that I've sat since they went back to two sides a week parking, they have showed up at some point, but I can't say that the street's any cleaner due to it. As you said, we all sit on our cars and some move, some don't. There's often a lot of people that have nice cars or whatever, that don't want to get them banged up or want to make it super easy for themselves to pull out, that leaves a wide gap between themselves and other cars. It traps these spots that could be very useful in an age-- Here comes the sweeper now. I have to go.

Brian Lehrer: Go get him. Move to the other side of the street. David, thank you call us again. Don't want him to be talking on the radio while he's trying to safely move his car. Look, looks like we have a retired street sweeper calling in, Joe in Manhattan. Hi, Joe. You're on WNYC.

Joe: Good morning, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Were you one of the guys driving the truck that comes and sweeps the streets?

Joe: Yes, on the Upper West Side for many years and listening to your program at the same time.

Brian Lehrer: So happy. What's your view of all this?

Joe: The biggest problem that I could relate is that people are sitting in their vehicles during alternate side on the side of the street that's supposed to be cleaned, and they're not double-parking anymore where they used to double park in many of the neighborhoods, and they don't. Part of that problem actually is because of the new bike lanes. If you double park in a bike lane, you automatically will get a summon, so people are avoiding that.

Basically, it's a time issue. The routes started, and because the sweeper's waiting for people to pull out, they clean, they can't complete their routes. Because of reduction in the amount of routes that they had because of people complying before, the streets were being cleaned, but now, they can't get through the streets in time.

Brian Lehrer: Can enforcement fix it? Because some people would rather rack up tickets.

Joe: I think that's what the commissioner is trying to figure out. Will enforcement help get people to move to the other side or park their car somewhere else so that the streets can get cleaned? It's a cooperation between the street sweepers, building owners sweeping 8 inches into their curbs, sweeping their sidewalks. The litter baskets, the big problem with litter baskets is household waste and commercial waste being dumped into the litter baskets.

Brian Lehrer: Joe, thank you. I'm going to leave it there because we're out of time. I really appreciate you chiming in. I'm told by the parent of a young child on our team that man do toddler's love the street sweepers. All right, [crosstalk] those of you in your cars, you have a half hour of Alison Stewart show to listen to before alternate side ends next.

 

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