Does New Legislation Mean Less Alternate Side of the Street Parking For Residents of Bed-Stuy?

Four days-a-week of street cleaning – and requiring residents to move their cars as frequently – may no longer be necessary in some neighborhoods.

On April 28, the City Council passed a bill, Intro 287-A, that would provide the option for some streets to have one less day of alternate side parking per week for each side of the street (two days a week total) in qualifying clean districts.

A qualifying district is defined as a district that achieves an average cleanliness rating of 90 percent or higher for two consecutive fiscal years, based on the mayor’s Office of Operations’ “scorecard” rating system. If qualified, a community board can opt out of two days of weekly street cleaning.

Members at the last community board 3 meeting rejoiced at the news, as the inconvenience of moving their cars so often or the possibility of a costly ticket has long been a major nuisance for New York City motorist.

However, Henry Butler, chair of Community Board 3, says it might be quite some time before Bedford-Stuyvesant can apply for such a change, as it will require community consensus and much cleaner streets.

“It seems as though half of the people want it, and half of the people do not, because they feel that our streets still are not clean enough to take away the street sweepers,” Butler said. “Also, our rankings have not been good. I think the last ranking I saw was around 70, 72, as far as cleanliness.”

Nelson Stoute, chair of the CB 3’s Environmental Protection, Transportation and Sanitation Committee agrees:

“A lot of people view this [bill] as a parking issue. I don’t – it’s a sanitation issue,” said Stout. “It’s one thing to say we should do this, and that the community board should push for it, but it’s not up to the community board. People need to first take responsibility for the litter on their streets.”

Over the past two decades, the cleanliness of New York City streets has improved significantly. In fact, based on the mayor’s office, streets have reached historically clean levels and are consistently achieving high scores.

However, in Bed-Stuy, Stout pointed out, each block may tell a different story: You see some stretches of streets that are pristine, but when you turn a corner – particularly on commercial corridors— food wrappers lines the streets; trash cans are overflowing; and people are not picking up after their pets.

You may have one neighbor that does their part about picking up and then another neighbor that doesn’t care, he said.

“We’re not clear about how the scoring works yet; we’re still trying to find out what they are using for their survey,” Stout said. “But we will need a lot more people than we have now willing to make a concerted effort and taking personal responsibility for cleaning up these streets.”

Additionally, according to the legislation, if a district is deemed cleaned and relieved of partial street cleaning, the Department of Sanitation could restore full street cleaning if the district falls below a 90 percent rating for three consecutive months, or if the average rating over 24 months is below 90 percent.

Finding parking is a huge challenge in New York City, and parking tickets, a major inconvenience. But Butler and Stout both agree that reduced alternate side of the street parking is a back-burner issue to first achieving a cleaner Bed-Stuy.

“My thing is, if we can arrive at a common ground about what it will take to make the sidewalks and streets cleaner, then yes, let’s work towards implementing this [legislation],” said Stout.

“But as long as people continue to throw chicken bones in the street, straw wrappers and other trash and don’t pick up after their dogs, then this is a tall order.”