New York, NY – A Brooklyn City Councilman is going after the hated neon shame stickers slapped on cars parked on the wrong side of the street.
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“It’s a pretty punitive form of punishment. I mean, what’s next? We’re going to start slashing people’s tires when they don’t park on the correct side?” said Councilman David Greenfield, who represents parking-starved Borough Park and Midwood.
Greenfield plans to introduce legislation that would abolish the hard-to-remove green stickers that sanitation agents paste on errant cars that violate alternate side parking rules.
“First of all, it’s a safety hazard,” Greenfield said. “How the heck are you supposed to drive and look out your window when you got this big thing stuck there? Second, it’s punitive. And, third we have very fundamental principle of justice in this country that you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty and these people are not prove guilty.”
The city started using the stickers in the mid 1980s to motivate New Yorkers to move for street sweepers
“Stickers have been a very effective means of conveying to motorists the importance of moving their cars so that streets can be swept,” said sanitation department spokesman Vito Turso.
But Greenfield says the $45 to $65 fines attached to alternate side tickets are deterrent enough.
For a long time I’ve been having this thought. Some sanitation police wants to release madness he goes around sticking stickers?!
Greenfield should get off it. The stickers are highly effective. They are no hazard, since they are placed on the rear window. There is also a problem that many people are immune to tickets, such as those with phoney florida or pennsylvania plates. The only thing that keeps them from parking illegaly is fear of getting “decaled”.
Perhaps Greenfield should rather abolish street cleaning tickets and only stickers should be used. Now that is something people will appreciate.
“A pretty punitive punishment” – well, yes. That’s the whole idea. of punishment.
Those morons put stickers on handicapped cars. #2 is rite that they are effective; effective in putting a stumbling block in front of handicaps, our treasured ones.
Maybe we should put a few stickers on Greenfield’s cars. He seems clueless about how frequently the SAME cars are illegally parked in front of building entrances, fire hydrants, loading zones or double parked blocking other cars. Its especially bad in BP and willy where some ehrleche yidden (politicians, doctors, second tier rabbonim and wannabe askanim seem to be the worst offenders) feel they have an entitlement from the Ebeshter to park where they want because they are doing important things. They should follow the rules like the rest of us. Short of towing them away, which should be reserved for the worst offenders, pasting these stickers on the illegally parked cars is a good deterrent.
As I remember its a state law which allowes municpalities to decal illegaly parked cars, it has even instructions how big its allowed to be.
Mr. Greenfeld you keep up with the good work, & fwd your concern to state lagislation that it should come off the state law.
Thanks
Since the debut of the stickers years ago I have avoided them by not violating altrernate side parking regulations. Why can’t Greenfield’s constituents do the same.
I’m surprised that there aren’t more important issues for the Councilmember to address.
Greenfield is correct. Law enforcement is about insuring that the law is followed, for whatever perceived benefit it was created. It is NOT about punishment. A ticket is a summons, to which one can plead guilty and pay the fine or challenge it in traffic court. I do not believe that traffic courts are fair either, but there is at least a presumption of innocence until “proven” guilty. The sticker is a punishment, and it only works to make auto owners in New York wish to not be here. One would hope that our city government (You too, Bloomberg) would be more welcoming to its own residents.
My car once had a sticker (it was lent to someone else who paid the ticket), but I suffered for many months to get the glue off. Grossly unfair. Greenfield, you’re right on this.
Poor David Greenfield is a typical community organizer who runs around LOOKING for people’s “troubles.”
Maybe he’ll run for president one day?
The sticker comes off right away with some warm water and soap. Its not a big deal, and takes just 2-3 minutes. So anyone who “suffered” with the sticker for months, has issues.
Let’s do something meaningful and something that will help the abiding citizens instead of the non abiding ones. The neon sticker is a non important issue and a waste of his time.
If he wants to make a mark and really wants to help then he should come up with legislation to allow parking right after the streets have been cleaned even though it is still before the alternate timing rules expire. All New Yorkers would be very thankful for making life easier in the city.
Thx David.
Stickers is a form of vandalism on the part of sanitation, which I don’t believe they have a right to.
We get tickets, so why the penalty of a sticker.
BTW, its impossible to get it off in 2 min. And even two minutes, still does not give these guys the right to vandalism.
It’s not that easy to “obey” alternate side parking regulations unless you don’t work or do anything else. Get real. The tickets are more than enough. Maybe someone can explain why Madision, Marine park, and Mill basin don’t have this garbage rule every week. It’s the same exact roads as here and you can’t tell me people litter less there. They just have friends in the city council or something.
We are a society that must follow rules. Alternate side of the street parking is one great pain but it is the only way to attempt to clean the streets. I make it my business to move my on street vehicle to conform to the rule, do I like it NO… but I accept it as a NYC fact of life. The last time I received a summons for an alternate side violation was in late 2004. The reason I didn’t move my two vehicles was because I was pre-occupied with the terminal illness of my wife and simply forgot. I was gulity but because of the extenuating circumstances that I was able to prove, the ALJ dismissed both summons on compassionate grounds. The stickers are nothing more than a way to remind drivers that we all must follow the rules. It’s the cronic violators that do the most complaining. Mr. Greenfield in this matter is just pandering to his constituents and getting some free press time. He would better serve his people by reminding them that without alternate side rules the streets would be even more filthy and implore them to not break the law.
Where can I buy a bunch of those stickers? I’d like to put one on every vehicle that pulls only partway into a driveway, and blocks the sidewalk so that pedestrians (think elderly, disabled, mothers with strollers) cannot pass. This is especially treacherous in snowy, icy slippery weather. Sidewalks are for pedestrians!! I’d also use them on vehicles blocking my driveway.
The stickers is the best thing the city did in a long time.
Hey David if your constituents are complaining about them thats great, because it means they work.
Remember the old rule “if it ain’t boke, don’t fix it.”
Keep them coming and David please stop trying to make traffic worse in BP then it already is.
Anyone who gets those stickers aught not to have parked there, and power to the sanitation workers for doing a great job sticking it to them.
To all who think its a good idea to punish someone for this why do they need to put stickers on cars if the reason is to give a hard time to take it off why Dont they use the same marker they use on towed cars which comes off much easier and its still a pain in the neck and everyone can still see it
Greenfeld keep it up
hey david,
how about revoking all the phoney parking permits for people who dont need it? emergency vehicles are fine. but what about all those who obtain one just to make themselves important? how about those lights and sirens that are used to get to work on time or to catch the shwarma place before they close? these people are endangering the public by abusing the system. come on david do something real and stop the nonsense.