Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pol wants snow days for parkers

From Courier-Life:

With snow removal treated vastly differently in Manhattan and the outer boroughs, one local legislator has a modest proposal for the city administration: Delay the return of alternate side parking in the boroughs where snow and ice-bound streets make it difficult, if not impossible for residents to move their cars.

City Councilmember Vincent Gentile sent a letter to that effect to Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan after the February 25th snowstorm, which dumped an average of 21 inches on city streets.

In a subsequent interview, Gentile said that he had received numerous complaints from constituents about the fact that alternate side regulations were slated to be reinstituted despite the fact that some neighborhood streets were in such bad shape that digging out cars to move them was extremely difficult.

The view from City Hall, he added, is somewhat skewed by the fact that, in business areas of Manhattan, there was a sustained effort to remove the snow. Nearby, one street was closed and used as a repository for the mounds of snow that had been scooped up by Department of Sanitation (DOS) vehicles, Gentile noted.

“So, within a day or two, it was clear sailing in Manhattan,” he added. “But, if you went to the outer boroughs, it was a totally different story. Streets were minimally plowed and hardened snow surrounded cars. So, DOT and city officials determining it was appropriate to re-impose alternate side parking were looking at Manhattan streets, not at the streets of the outer boroughs. Luckily with days of 40 degree weather, the problem resolved itself, but that doesn’t solve the problem for next time.”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so elementary it's asinine. My son's car was frozen in place because the plows pushed the snow against his car. If he bothered to move it ( the city advised folks not to drive)where would he park anyway the spots were all occupied those whom were plowed in?

Thankfully we don't have alternate side parking on our block, if we did we would have been sitting ducks for tickets.

Anonymous said...

I was ticketed for alternate side parking (street cleaning) when I did not move my car becuase it was stuck in ice. Either I could try to dig my car out of the ice and be an hour ot two late for work or I could leave my car there in the assumption that they would not ticket my snow covered street.
When I returned home that evening I indeed did have a ticket but there was no evidence whatsoever of street cleaning or even a plow coming down my street.

Anonymous said...

Who cares?! Whining drivers are so annoying.

Anonymous said...

Until if and when driving, owning, parking a car is made illegal in the five boroughs, we'll whine all we want, asswipe.

Anonymous said...

I always make sure to shovel my car out after a storm (sometimes a second time after the plows return) whether I plan to move it or not. It boggles my mind that people let their cars sit in plowed snow for days until it turns to ice and then try to get their cars out.