![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ASP-Pilot-map.png\")
The pilot area included a roughly 10-by-two-block area of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights. Map: Council Member Hudson’s office<\/p>\nGive an inch back to parking, drivers take a mile. <\/p>\n
The Sanitation Department abandoned its eight-week summer experiment to let motorists in a small sliver of Brooklyn park their cars during some street cleaning hours after, surprise, the roads got dirtier and parking violations jumped during remaining enforcement hours.<\/p>\n
The alternate side parking \u201cpilot\u201d in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights cut the amount of times motorists had to move their cars for DSNY sweepers from two times a week per side of the road to just once per side, at the request of the area\u2019s Council Member Crystal Hudson, who said constituents complained to her about having to move their cars more than drivers in some other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping that this could\u2019ve proven that fewer days of alternate side parking enforcement would yield greater compliance, but that\u2019s just not what the data has shown,\u201d Hudson told Streetsblog. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pilot lasted from Aug. 3 to Sept. 25, and covered a roughly 10-by-two-block area from Atlantic Avenue to Eastern Parkway, between Vanderbilt Avenue and Grand Avenue.<\/p>\n
The pilot area included a roughly 10-by-two-block area of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights. Map: Council Member Hudson’s office<\/p>\n
DSNY deployed officers to monitor the street before and after, and they also found that building owners kept their sidewalks less clean during that time.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood got dirtier and people broke the rules more, according to DSNY data. Compliance with the remaining parking rules dropped by 11 percent, from 73 percent to 62 percent. Sanitation officials slapped drivers with an average of 457 tickets a month\u00a0\u2014 two violations more than the month before, when alternate side rules were in effect for double the amount of time.<\/p>\n
One parking expert said it was a \u201cwise choice\u201d by New York\u2019s Strongest to resume the full-time cleanup schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re telling me that the streets got dirtier when you cleaned them less, that does sound to me like you want to go back to cleaning them more,\u201d said Rachel Weinberger, vice president for transportation at the Regional Plan Association. \u201cThe whole ASP thing is out of control in the city right now in terms of non-compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
DSNY estimates that about half a million drivers fail to move for their sweepers every week. As a result, debris remains on the street and ends up blocking catch basins, worsening the increasingly frequent flooding in the city, according to a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an academic problem\u2026we don\u2019t ask people to move their cars just because we feel like it, but because it\u2019s the best way to get the street clean and failing to do so has real-world consequences,\u201d DSNY\u2019s Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs and Customer Experience, Joshua Goodman, told Streetsblog. <\/p>\n
The fine for breaking street sweeping rules is $65, a price many motorists are happy to pay a few times a month rather than shell out far more for a space in an off-street garage. Two-year-old legislation<\/a> in Albany to automate enforcement, like the city already does for bus lane tickets, has yet to pass.<\/p>\n \t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n \t\t Council Member Hudson announced the pilot effort in July<\/a>, saying that for \u201cyears our office has heard from Prospect Heights residents who have asked whether twice-a-week Alternate Side Parking is still necessary to keep neighborhood streets clean. This pilot will help determine whether once-a-week ASP can maintain the same level of cleanliness while reducing the burden on residents.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawmaker and residents claimed the rules were an unfair burden on locals, since streets in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods like Park Slope often only have one cleaning day per side. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense that Park Slope on the other side of Flatbush Avenue just has to do it once,\u201d said Steve Flack, president of the Sterling Place Block Association. \u201cIn the end I think should be equal across Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n However, more alternate side parking also means the street is supposed to get cleaned more often, even if it comes at the annoyance to motorists. Two-thirds of households in Hudson\u2019s district do not own a car, according to U.S. Census figures<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to address what I think to a lot of people has just felt like a system that is not equal or equitable across the different neighborhoods,\u201d Hudson said. <\/p>\n Goodman said alternate side parking hours go back \u201ca long time,\u201d but that residents can request changes to the schedule via their community boards, which still requires sign-off from the Sanitation and Transportation departments.<\/p>\n Alternate side parking dates back to 1950<\/a> \u2014 overnight parking was illegal up until then. The police commissioner at the time, Arthur Wallander, even lamented<\/a> \u201cthe public streets being used as garages,\u201d saying it \u201cconstitutes one of the gravest problems facing the city.\u201d Thus, alternate side parking was born to keep city street clean in a car-dominated world.<\/p>\n \u201c[Alternate side parking] seems like an intractable problem in a way,\u201d said Weinberger. \u201cThe streets do need to be cleaned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \t![\"\u2018Cheaper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/double-parked-car.jpg\")
\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n