Rev up your engines, because here’s the latest on an unexpected parking fiasco.
An attempt to streamline alternate side parking rules in Brooklyn hit a major speed bump this week. A flawed rollout of the new system led to numerous drivers in Prospect Heights being wrongly issued with bright green “shame” stickers and slapped with $65 fines.
These penalties were mistakenly given after the city announced that alternate side rules were reduced to once a week in the neighborhood, starting Monday. Unfortunately, the memo didn’t reach all the enforcers on time, resulting in legal parkers erroneously getting ticketed.
Instead of simplifying parking for locals, the botched communication left many residents outraged and bewildered by the enforcement mishap.
“That’s just unacceptable! This is the digital era, so there’s no reason for this kind of blunder,” protested Glenn Sainsbury. His nephew Christopher found himself among those unjustly fined. “With all the tech for emails and texts, this doesn’t make any sense,” he added, expressing his frustration.
Christopher woke up Monday to find an ugly green adhesive stuck to his car window, which he was more upset about than the $65 ticket.
“It’s not easy stuff to get off. You’ve got to take up a spatula or something, or a razor to get it off. I guess they get tired of people not moving their cars,” said Sainsbury.
This week marked the first that the wealthy neighborhood was meant to enjoy a reduced ASP schedule that sliced the number of times drivers needed to move their cars for street sweepers in half.
Prospect Heights is typically saddled with twice-weekly sweepings per side of the road — which results in the neighborhood being littered with more double parking than trash.
Monday was intended to be the first day, but the traffic agents who doled out tickets had never heard of the pilot initiative, sources said.
Each ticket, issued for failing to move a car during scheduled street sweeping, costs $65.
The Sanitation Department told The Post it notified several agencies like the NYPD and Finance Department about the program in the weeks ahead of its start date.
But a source close to the issue said just one notice was sent on the issue without confirmation or follow-up, leading to the orange-ticket blunder.
There was a lack of “coordination” between the DSNY and NYPD, the insider said.
The NYPD emphasized that the slip-up had already been resolved.
“These summonses were issued in error and have already been voided. We will ensure that the Department of Sanitation creates a formal process for notifying the NYPD about any requests for changes to longstanding parking rules,” a spokesperson said.
Police could not share how many summonses were issued, but City Councilmember Crystal Hudson’s office received about 12 complaints.
“Drivers have notified our office that they received summonses on days when enforcement was not supposed to occur in the pilot area,” Hudson told The Post.
“Our office has reached out directly to the Department of Sanitation, local NYPD precincts, and the NYPD Chief of Traffic to ensure traffic enforcement agents do not issue tickets on non-enforcement days. The City has assured us that any summonses issued on non-designated enforcement days will be dismissed.”
The blunder will be corrected for next week, her office said.
The pilot program — aimed at determining whether once-per-week sweeping is enough to keep the neighborhood clean — will continue through Sept. 25.