Alternate Side to Be Capped at Once a Week Per Street Side

While many New York City residents will groan as street cleaning resumes next Monday, they will find one welcome change: each side of a residential street will be cleaned no more than once per week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

Any street side with multiple Alternate Side Parking days will be cleaned on the last day posted on that side’s sign. For example, a street side with ASP regulations posted on Monday and Thursday will now be cleaned on Thursday only.

“As our city reopens and fights back against the COVID-19 crisis,” said de Blasio, “we’re proud to offer more convenient options for working New Yorkers.”

The new rules apply only to residential side streets and not to commercial areas. Daily sweeping regulations in metered areas will not change, and cleaning streets with posted No Standing, No Stopping and No Parking regulations will continue as needed.

ASP regulations have been suspended for most of the coronavirus pandemic. Last Thursday, a Hamodia reporter asked if the mayor would consider eliminating ASP completely or perhaps reducing it to once a month. Noting that “alternate side is like right up there with Satan in most people’s views” but “unfortunately it is a necessary evil if ever there’s been one,” the mayor said the inconvenience of ASP would have to be balanced with the need to clean the streets. De Blasio said that while ASP would not be eliminated, the city would consider reducing its frequency “double down on the work of ensuring that the most someone has to move their car is once a week.”

The mayor announced the change Tuesday; it will take effect when ASP resumes for one week starting next Monday, June 29. The regulations will be enforced on “a week-by-week basis and will assess conditions throughout the summer,” City Hall said in a press release. “The City will determine whether to extend, or modify the new regulations over the course of the summer.”

According to City Hall, this is the most dramatic change to ASP regulations since 2000, when the City reduced the duration of sweeping windows from 3 hours to 90 minutes. ASP has been in place in New York City since the mid-1950s, and regulations currently effect nearly 2,300 miles of New York City streets.

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rborchardt@hamodia.com