New York – The City Council today approved a bill written by Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) that ends the city’s practice of placing neon stickers on the windows of vehicles that are parked on the wrong side of the street during alternate-side parking regulations. These stickers, which are a pet peeve of many New Yorkers, would be stopped immediately under the legislation which heads now to the Mayor for approval.

“Punishing drivers with these impossible-to-remove stickers is unfair and unnecessary. New York City doesn’t employ methods of public humiliation and shame for those who violate serious crimes, yet has no problem defacing private property with neon stickers because you forgot to move your car on an alternate-side parking day. This common-sense legislation will make life a little bit saner for New Yorkers,” said Greenfield. “I thank Speaker Christine Quinn and my colleagues in the New York City Council for supporting this legislation. I am pleased that these ugly and impossible to remove stickers will soon be a thing of the past, and I know that drivers across the city share that sentiment. This is another victory in our continuing effort to improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers.”

The bill, which keeps in place existing $45 to $60 fines for alternate-side parking violations but ends the practice of placing these hard-to-remove stickers on the car’s rear window, received overwhelming support from Council members, drivers and the Automobile Association of America (AAA) when introduced earlier this year. “Receiving a parking ticket in New York already comes with a hefty fine, so we do not see a need for the overkill of placing a difficult to remove sticker on the vehicle to notify, and punish for a second time, an individual violating a parking restriction,” said Jeffrey Frediani, a legislative analyst with AAA New York.

Aside from representing an unfair form of punitive punishment against drivers, the stickers also posed a safety hazard due to their positioning on the vehicle window. In all, a dozen Council members joined Greenfield as sponsors of this legislation. The city Sanitation Department has used neon stickers in cases of alternate-side parking violations since 1988, issuing about 400 each day alternative-side parking rules are in effect for street cleaning.

(YWN Desk – NYC)