They’re sticking it to bad parkers!
Fluorescent “shame stickers” are set to make a comeback in the Big Apple for the first time in over a decade — to bully drivers who ignore alternate side parking rules.
The City Council rubber-stamped Intro-92, which allows street sweepers to once again apply neon adhesive stickers to the drivers-side window of cars found skirting the law, following a 41-10 vote Tuesday.
“This vehicle violates NYC parking regulations,” the obnoxious 8.5 x 11-inch signs say. “As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned.”
The bill would repeal a 2011 ban on the practice, which stemmed from complaints that the adhesive used on the stickers was too difficult to take off and sometimes damaged windows.
“Street cleaning only works when cars move,” said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, an Upper West Side politician who sponsored the legislation, ahead of the vote.
The city uses alternate side parking regulations for street cleaning, which bars motorists from parking on a particular side of a street — typically once or twice a week for roughly 90 minutes — while it’s being cleaned.
Sanitation department figures from 2011 found that street cleanliness, on average, was rated 94 out of 100, compared to a prior average of 73 before the stickers were used for enforcement, according to a City Council committee report on the proposal.
Brewer claims constituents have figured out that risking $65-a-pop parking tickets are cheaper than a monthly parking garage pass — leading to nearly 500,000 scofflaws cited and 3,000 miles of streets citywide that can’t be cleaned each week.
Conditions have deteriorated so much in recent years that the councilwoman coordinates a monthly cleaning on West 83rd Street with sanitation crews and NYPD, she said.
“People need to move their damn car,” Brewer huffed at the meeting. The bill now awaits the mayor’s signature.
During a hearing for the rule change this year, then-sanitation commissioner Javier Lojan called the stickers “the most effective things that we can do to deter vehicles not moving for alternate side parking.”
But not everyone is thrilled that the sticker shock is making a comeback.
“The sticker is an overreach,” fumed delivery driver Lucian Coard, who was sitting in his car on West 72nd Street Wednesday afternoon. “It’s damaging, the adhesive is tough. To get it off, you gotta scrape it off.”
The 55-year-old driver noted he often tries to “run in and out” of a building in hopes he isn’t slapped with a penalty — and while a sticker may deter him, it won’t stop everyone:
“It may lessen the amount of vehicles parked illegally but it’s not going to stop it. This is a hustle and bustle city: this is New York.”
“That whole sticker thing is annoying,” IT technician Eric Dillard said. “To take it off, it’s a pain in the butt … it’s an incentive to move, but some people are still going to do it anyway.”
“It’s a waste of money,” said 28-year-old doorman JP Plaza.
“I really don’t think people care about being shamed,” he added. “Raise the cost of the ticket: at least you can justify making money, not spending money.”
Even former Councilman David G. Greenfield weighed in after the vote, calling the measure a “blatant violation of due process.
“But everyone hates car owners, so behold, they’re back,” he added.
The city’s sanitation department applauded the effort shortly after the Tuesday decision, with DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson calling the prohibition of stickers a “grave mistake.”
The department head noted at a hearing earlier this year that the adhesive technology has likely improved in the decade since the ban, and the agency will be testing out different options to limit damage to cars.
“Selfish car owners who prioritize their convenience over clean neighborhoods will soon be peeling stickers off their cars, while also paying for a summons,” Anderson said.
“Our goal is neither writing summonses nor using stickers,” he added.
“We want people to simply comply with the law, so we can clean streets across New York City.”
