(NYC DOT)
June 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Alternate side parking rules will be cut to once per week across the entire city for a one-week pilot beginning Monday — in what could well become a permanent change.
The city will cut street cleaning and alternate side parking rules to once a week on streets where they are currently twice or more a week, beginning Monday, June 29, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this morning.
The city will pilot the cutback for one week and then reassess to see if it is something that can be made permanent.
“This needs to change, so we’re about to make the biggest change in alternate side parking in the last two decades,” de Blasio said, noting he is in favor of making the pilot permanent.
Streets where there are cleaning twice or more a week will only be cleaned on the later day scheduled. For example a Monday, Wednesday street will only be cleaned Wednesday and residents can leave their cars parked on the street Monday.
(City Hall presentation)
De Blasio has repeatedly suspended alternate side parking and street cleaning altogether for weeks at a time during the pandemic. The rules are currently suspended through Sunday.
After next week the city will reevaluate each week whether to suspend alternate parking throughout the summer.
De Blasio said he has been frustrated himself dealing with the alternate side parking rules and trying to find a parking spot.
“It is frustrating. It is difficult, it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said during his daily press briefing this morning. “We have to rethink the whole model.”
He said the rules are unfair and a “super hassle” for people who have to move their cars multiple times a week to avoid a ticket.
The mayor seemed favorable towards cutting back the rules permanently.
“I like it,” he said. “I hope this will prove to be as common sense as I think it is and it’ll be something we can institute long term.”
