Brooklyn, NY – A bill sponsored by Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-BROOKLYN) that will open up existing parking spots for New York City drivers was passed by the City Council this week, with a unanimous vote in favor.
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Around every school building in the City are parking regulations that are intended to make student drop-off and pick-up safer by not allowing parking during school hours. These signs will generally say “NO PARKING SCHOOL DAYS”. During summer months, these regulations can often confuse drivers, who are unaware if they are permitted to park near a school building, because there is no public information that indicates where active summer sessions are taking place.
Deutsch’s bill aims to resolve this with transparency, requiring the Department of Education to compile a list of all summer sessions in New York City schools. The Department of Transportation will then be required to list which of those buildings have active parking restrictions. These lists will be made publicly available by June 30th of every year, so that drivers can easily search a location or call 311 to determine if it is permissible to park there during summer daytime hours. This will ultimately free up thousands of parking spots across the City, in areas surrounding public and charter school buildings.
The lists will also be made available to the Traffic Department, to prevent unwarranted violations from being issued to legally parked cars. With the current system, a driver who receives a violation for parking in a school zone would only be able to fight the summons by receiving a letter from the school administration indicating that they do not have active summer sessions. This process can often be time-consuming and frustrating.
“Lack of parking is a serious struggle for drivers throughout New York City, particularly in areas where there is a lack of mass transit access,” said Councilman Chaim Deutsch. “Opening up hundreds of existing parking spots throughout the City is an easy way to relieve that burden, at least for part of the year. Here in our city, the day to day pressures and stress can be overwhelming. I’m proud to have been able to pass a bill that endeavors to tackle that, and make life just a little bit easier for my fellow New Yorkers.
This bill, known as Introduction 0084, will take effect on September 1, 2019.
kudos chaim!
this is something that has been long in coming, I always wondered which schools incan park next to during the summer!
Now do 10 feet of fire hydrant clearance instead of 15 feet
How about penalizing ticket agents for frivolous tickets?
How about fining all those law breakers in Brooklyn and Queen for their illegal curb cuts which deprive people of their parking spaces?
How about just posting outside the school if they are in session or not, rather than needing to lookup online, or on a paper.
Actually, why can’t people park there even during school / camp hours, just not during drop off and pick up, eg, from 8-10am & from 2 -4pm.
Any word about parking spaces in front of churches and synagogues?