Most NYC drivers haven’t bothered moving their cars due to alternate-side parking suspension: Dept. of Sanitation
New York City’s streets have grown dirtier during the coronavirus pandemic — and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch suggested Tuesday that her old boss, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, shares some blame for that.
During the peak of the pandemic, de Blasio amended alternate-side parking rules so that city drivers would only have to move their cars once a week for street sweepings, down from the customary twice-a-week routine.
In testimony before the City Council on Tuesday afternoon, Tisch said the Sanitation Department estimates that more than 50% of Big Apple drivers have stopped moving their cars altogether as a result of de Blasio’s policy, opting to instead pay the occasional parking ticket they may get slapped with.
“The policy created a world where too many people felt that once-in-a-while ASP tickets is just the cost of doing business,” Tisch said, adding that she believes the partial suspension has been in effect “for far too long.”
Before being named Mayor Adams’ sanitation commissioner last month, Tisch served as de Blasio’s commissioner of the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications.
De Blasio’s once-a-week policy remains in effect, but Adams announced last month that alternate-side parking is coming back in full force on July 5.
Tisch said the resumption of twice-a-week cleanings is tantamount to keeping city streets sanitary, calling the mechanic broom trucks that do the alternate-side parking sweeps “the most effective tool in our arsenal.”
“Effective July 5, we will finally be sweeping the streets again,” she said.
Tisch said the return of regular alternate-side parking rules also comes with the rehiring of about 41 mechanic broom operators who have been reassigned to other duties during the pandemic.
