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New York City has found a new (or, technically, very old) way to punish drivers who refuse to move their cars for street cleaning: public humiliation in a hard-to-ignore shade of green.
Bright green stickers are once again appearing on the windows of cars that violate alternate-side parking rules, reviving an enforcement tactic that disappeared from city streets more than a decade ago. The first stickers under the revived program were slapped onto cars blocking street sweepers on West 90th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West this week.
The stickers are not subtle. “This vehicle violated NYC street cleaning rules. As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned,” they announce in big lettering. And lest you think the fluorescent badge of dishonor replaces the financial consequences, drivers can still get the standard $65 parking ticket, too.
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Officially, the Department of Sanitation would rather you not call them “shame stickers.” But unofficially, that is pretty much the vibe. City Council Member Gale Brewer, who pushed to bring the stickers back, told FOX 5 that embarrassment is part of their usefulness: “I think it's going to send a message. It's embarrassing to have a sticker on your car.”
And apparently, we have a lot of potential sticker recipients. At a City Council hearing in May, Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson said nearly 500,000 vehicles violate alternate-side parking rules every week, preventing street sweepers from properly cleaning more than 3,000 miles of roadway.
For longtime New Yorkers, the fluorescent warnings may trigger some sticky memories. The city used similar decals for roughly 25 years before the City Council banned them in 2012, following complaints that the adhesive was incredibly difficult to remove and could damage car windows. The Council even overrode then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto to get rid of them.
This time around, city officials say the stickers aren't supposed to be as adhesive as their notorious predecessors, though just how easily they'll peel off remains to be seen. The legislation authorizes the Department of Sanitation, Department of Transportation and other designated agencies to affix stickers to vehicle windows as part of alternate-side parking enforcement.
The city may eventually have another weapon in the war against cars blocking the broom. Anderson has also backed state legislation that would allow cameras to be mounted on street sweepers, potentially making it easier to catch drivers who don't move.
Until then, there's the neon-green approach: move your car or risk letting the entire block know exactly why the street is still filthy.