City offers to reform alternate side street cleaning regulations

By Manny Grossman

When it comes to alternate side of the street parking, we all know the drill. Wakeup, get out of the house before you get a ticket, hunt for a space, find one (or not), repeat the next day.

That may soon change.

A new plan recently announced by the city Department of Sanitation rolls back the number of days the rules are in effect from four days a week to two.

There is one catch, however. According to Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins, to be considered for the rollback, each "section in a district must have a scorecard rating of 90 or better."

Every section in community board 8 already does. For fiscal year 2007, section one, which includes Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights, scored a 93.5. Section two, which includes Van Cortlandt Village, scored a 98.7 and Section 3, which includes all of Riverdale, scored a perfect 100. The average score for the first three months in 2008 is 97.3.

The plan will soon be implemented in Community Board 6 in Brooklyn. District Manager Craig Hammerman says that he has heard nothing but raves about it, and that the "anticipation is palpable."

Board 8 Chairman Tony Cassino, speaking for himself and not for the board, said, "This is one of the best ideas I have heard in a long time."

"People deserve a break, and if you can reduce the unnecessary movement of cars without a real impact to the cleanliness of our streets, we not only give weary motorists a break, but we cut down on emissions, double parking and traffic."

Brad Trebach, chair of the traffic and transportation committee, says he thinks it "makes sense to consider fine-tuning the parking rules on some residential streets." But he feels that it requires more study because streets near schools, parks and commercial districts should keep the current rules.

He also believes that if the scores drop below 90 percent, the old rules should be reinstated.

"It's all about finding the proper balance between the competing interests of parking and street cleaning," he said.