Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Aug 4

New York City Revives Parking Sticker Penalty After 14 Years, Targeting $65 Street-Cleaning Violators

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Aug 4

New York City Revives Parking Sticker Penalty After 14 Years, Targeting $65 Street-Cleaning Violators

Q: Why might a sticky green piece of paper terrify chronic parking violators more than a standard $65 city fine?

Because the sticker adds public embarrassment and practical hassle to the penalty, it can hit chronic violators harder than a routine $65 fine. For many repeat offenders, the ticket has become a predictable cost of keeping a car on the street. Gale Brewer has argued that some drivers effectively treat the fine as cheaper than paying for a garage. A bright neon-green sticker changes that calculation. It publicly marks the vehicle as having blocked street cleaning, making the violation visible to neighbors, passersby and anyone approaching the car. The sticker also creates an immediate nuisance. Drivers must remove it themselves, using warm water and a scraper, and the older version was notorious for being difficult to peel off. City officials say the new adhesive is less intense, but the point remains: unlike a ticket that can be stuffed in a glove compartment, the sticker is a problem stuck directly to the vehicle. That mix of shame and inconvenience is exactly why sanitation officials say the stickers work. The Department of Sanitation has called them one of its most effective deterrents, and past city data cited by lawmakers showed street cleanliness improved significantly when the stickers were in use. With an estimated 500,000 alternate-side parking violations each week preventing more than 3,000 miles of streets from being cleaned, officials are betting that a visible, annoying consequence will change behavior more effectively than a modest fine alone.

2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 4

Fourteen years after banning them, New York City on Tuesday resumed using neon-green “Parking Sticker of Shame” decals on cars that block street sweeping, alongside a $65 ticket.
Gale Brewer joined sanitation workers on West 90th Street on the Upper West Side, where poor compliance with alternate-side parking rules has kept sweepers from properly cleaning the block.
Drivers on that stretch must move cars twice a week—Tuesdays and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.—and at least one motorist drove off as crews began placing stickers.
The decals had been used for 25 years before the City Council banned them in 2012; Brewer sponsored this year's bill to restore the public-shaming tactic.