Every day, somewhere and everywhere in New York City, is street-cleaning day. As such, there are days when you have to make sure to move your car so as to let the street cleaning truck do its thing. It is utter chaos for about 30 minutes.
People hurry to move their cars and find another spot. People hurry to move their cars to double park on the other side of the street. Then they wait for the five-second cleaning to pass by so that they can move their car back to their old spot. People hurry to move their cars so that they can follow the street-sweeper and park behind where they just passed. And, this happens on a weekly basis or more for some depending on their parking-luck.
Those of us who don’t drive stand by amused, at times, as tempers flare up and people try to fight off a ticket. It’s the 9am NYC street parking show. Catch it anywhere.
psychologistmimi 
Great article! I could totally relate to the chaos that happens during street-cleaning day. It’s interesting how people come up with different strategies to avoid getting ticketed. Do you think there should be a better system in place to make the process less chaotic?
Cheers!
Steven
TEXAS TOWS INC. Dallas Towing Service
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Here they usually mark a street as being closed for parking for most of the day on street cleaning day. “No Parking – Street cleaning 6 am to 6 pm. Parking control drives through at 6:01 am and then periodically to write the tickets. Poor people forget or have no other place to park their car and affluent people can’t be bothered.
The city treats this as a revenue source. There was a big scandal where LA posted a bunch of those signs on streets that never got cleaned. Law suites ensued. City claimed they can’t be expected to know whether a given street will be cleaned on a given day but they did have a schedule and many streets were NEVER going to be swept.
Now, the city actually has to clean the street that day or you can challenge the ticket and get it dismissed. Some people lack the free time to do so and some people figure their time is so valuable it is cheaper to pay than to fight. It is still revenue.
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I remember alternate-side-of-the-street parking from the 1950s. I never had a car in New York, but my roommate did, and he sometimes drove over to Manhatten from Queens, for whatever reason. He would spend about an hour each evening looking for a new parking space on the other side of the street. The sides were designated by odd and even numbered days, before midnight, even though the parking restriction didn’t begin until after midnight.
Somewhere I still have a book from the 1950s by Paul and Percival Goodman, in which they suggested banning cars from Manhatten.
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SMiLes Dear Miriam Best Part of Owning
A New Vehicle is All the Walking i Get to Do
Hehe as my Wife Finally Gives the Okay to
Park Far Away From
All the Car Scratchers
And Buggy Bumpers in the
World And Additionally All the
Chaos That Happens Yes When
Pedestrians And Cars Mix in
Public Parking Spaces
So Very Crowded
Where the Prize
is the Up Front Place
Yet Behind So Very Peaceful Indeed
And Again Just More Exercise to Boot..:)
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