While it would seem anecdotally that the Great Park Slope Alternate Side Parking Experiment hasn’t made it noticeably more difficult to park in most parts of the neighborhood (our own sense of the situation), there’s some concern that filth has started building up on the street. The problem involves what people are saying is more trash at the curb and garbage piling up at catch basin and blocking them (although, again, we haven’t noticed a situation that’s unusually more gross considering). Here’s an email sent our way by a member of our Park Slope network that is from the widely circulating Park Slope Parents email flow:
Are your streets dirtier than normal because of the suspension of Alternate Side Parking for the summer? Ours is filthy & the storm drains on the corners are plugged up with dirt, debris and leaves. Whatever bureaucrat determined that summer was a good time to suspend the parking rules was not thinking about the impact on the neighborhood. If you have a minute, please take a minute to let our community leaders know that you are upset about the conditions on our neighborhood streets.
Another email on the subject says:
I agree, our street is also dirty. We have construction on our block which seems to give many people the idea that they can throw garbage on the ground more!
More discussion to follow.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Jun 24, 2008 at 10:27 am
I was to help a woman whois sick. She lives on the UES of Manhattan. She parks her car in Park Slope because of the no alt rules.
2 DW // Jun 24, 2008 at 10:32 am
You ought to put a link to Gawker on the blog somewhere. That may make it easier to transfer hogwash like the above, there.
3 Benjamin Kabak // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:42 am
Allow me to suggest a radical idea for people upset with the states of the drains around the neighborhood: Grab a shovel and a garbage bag and take five minutes doing a good deed. It’s very easy to complain about this stuff by posting on the PSP forums, but it’s much nicer to simply take a few minutes of time to clean up a neighborhood perhaps not getting the right attention it deserves right now.
4 Velvet Sea // Jun 24, 2008 at 12:40 pm
people will complain about anything these days.
5 Janet // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:08 pm
If not the summer, when? The fall, when there are more leaves? The winter, when most construction of all kinds doesn’t occur due to the weather?
There are communities in this city which somehow manage to keep their streets clean without ANY alternate side parking rules. Perhaps the residents don’t expect to be picked up after.
6 bren // Jun 24, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Thank you Benjamin!
It’s such a no-brainer… pick up a broom and a bag and spend a few minutes cleaning up …
it’s not such a big deal…. we all have been doing this for years on my block if things get messy.
7 common sense // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I’m all for pitching in but sometimes it isn’t practical to clear out the catch basins. When it isn’t you can call 311 and the DOE will clean it. They have crews out dealing with this and stuff like this.
They don’t check them as a matter of course – it’s not usually this bad in any one place because the streets are being cleaned. That’s why you need to call.
8 Karen McCahill // Jun 25, 2008 at 8:10 am
Has anyone seen an end-date for the suspension of alternate side parking? I noticed that the signs have been changed in my area (Garfield & 6th Ave) and wouldn’t want to be caught.
9 Jed // Jun 26, 2008 at 11:03 am
Fair points – I do pick up a broom to sweep up my sidewalk & the street in front of my house – and often up & down my block. But I am not concerned about the 20 feet in front of my house – I am concerned about the rest of the street and all of the other streets I walk on… The point is that street sweeping works – and its idiotic that the city would need 3 months to change a few signs.
10 BC // Jul 1, 2008 at 1:41 am
Parking with the rule has not improved in my neighborhood however most of the streets are no dirtier than before. In parts of Queens there is no alternate side parking and the streets are always spotless–and guess what the residents are more relaxed and easy going. Maybe dirty, as is complaining, is a Brooklyn thing? I did think the new rule would improve parking at least, but it has not. If you can get one of the coveted spaces and save on gas, the key word here is the price of gas, then those who can leave the car for the week do. Here in Brooklyn we no longer pray to God for an end to war, we pray for a parking spot. I wish the rules would end permanently and give us here in Brooklyn one less headache. I have no problem picking up a broom.