Wednesday’s Headlines: Sticker Shocker Edition

You do the crime, you deal with slime.

The Department of Sanitation will bring back those once-familiar “shame stickers” that get slapped on the cars of people who don’t move their vehicle for alternate-side-of-the-street parking, thanks to a bill that passed the City Council yesterday.

Council Member Gale Brewer’s bill to bring back the brightly colored “This Vehicle Violates NYC Parking Regulations” stickers from their decade-long hiatus was a mere fingernail in the Council’s handshake agreement on the budget with Mayor Mamdani, but it’s worth cheering.

And not because we love to see cars vandalized by the government (nor does Brewer).

According to DSNY, the annoying-to-remove stickers — plus the $65 fine that accompanies them — actually do deter drivers from selfishly leaving their car in place and preventing street sweepers from properly cleaning the roadway. The $65 ticket wasn’t enough of an incentive, the Sanitation Department said, because there simply aren’t enough tickets being written — only about 1.8 million a year. (Hell, looking at how few drivers move their cars on ASP day, you could imagine the NYPD could write that many tickets in a week!)

But I wanted more. So I called up Brewer to hector her because what we really need are a) higher fines to truly deter illegal parking, b) cameras on DSNY street sweepers to automate the whole process and c) more tickets being written. The first two require state approval.

The problem with my rant was that Brewer agreeed — no hectoring needed.

“I support it all,” she told me. “I beg the cops to write more tickets. They do it when they can, but these bums — what do we call them, ‘scofflaws?’ — don’t move their cars for alternate-side and then the street is a mess.”

But the push for both automated enforcement and for higher parking fines stalled in Albany this session. And cops are an imperfect hammer against the millions of nails. You can’t fully enforce your way out of selfishness by millions of drivers.

So, for now, the stickers. DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson was pleased. “Selfish car owners who prioritize their convenience over clean neighborhoods will soon be peeling stickers off their cars, while also paying for a summons,” he said in a statement. “Our goal is neither writing summonses nor using stickers. We want people to simply comply with the law, so we can clean streets across New York City.”

He went further: If you want something better than stickers, tell your state legislator to allow the city to put cameras on street sweepers. “If scraping off a simple sticker is too much for delinquent drivers who don’t move their cars, we hope legislators in Albany will finally pass a bill that allows for more efficient automated enforcement so that we can deliver the clean public spaces all New Yorkers deserve,” Anderson said.

In other news:

• Speaking of the budget deal, Mayor Mamdani decided we don’t need more cops after all. (NYDN)
• Of course, the Post calls it a catastrophe.
• This week’s heat is going to be serious. Treat it so. (NY Times, Gothamist)
• A motorcyclist ran down and killed a grandmother. (NY Post)
• Late on Monday, the Times broke the news that a federal judge told President Trump to stop trying to halt the Gateway Tunnel project.
• Here’s a Downtown Brooklyn classic: The scofflaws who moved the planter into the bike lane. (Reddit)
• Message to the New York Post: The moped rider in your video didn’t “plow into” an open car door; the driver of the car opened his door into the roadway (a crime!), knocking the kid to the ground, where he was killed. This is not hard; it’s basic journalism.
• I like a subway elevator built by a developer. (The City Reporter)
• The Post and Gothamist followed our big Red Hook Pool story.
• And, finally, we mentioned in yesterday’s headlines that DOT had finalized its plans for a sort-of Low Traffic Neighborhood (-ish) design on Avenue B. Well, Mayor Mamdani is a true steamroller because the work started … yesterday! The final plan will turn two-way Avenue B into a one-way northbound street between E. Seventh and E. 10th streets as well as add in better pedestrian crossings and other tweaks. Here are some shots taken by Friend of Streetsblog Clarence Eckerson Jr. of the work unfolding: