Red Hookers will get to join the suspended alternate-side-of-the-street parking fun on Monday, Sept. 8, when the city moves to its fourth and final round of swapping new parking signs in Community Board 6.
The new suspended parking area includes all streets between the waterfront and Hamilton Avenue, Summit Street, and Smith Street (see map, far right).
A week later, on Sept. 15, new alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules will take affect in an area that stretches from Atlantic Avenue south to Hamilton Avenue, and from Court Street west to Van Brunt Street and Columbia Street (near right).
Whole segments of Community Board 6 — which includes neighborhoods from Park Slope to New York Harbor — have been a de facto parking lot for long stretches this summer, thanks to a city decision to reduce “No parking” hours on street-cleaning days. That decision required the installation of thousands of new “No parking” signs, so, beginning on May 19, most of Park Slope became a parking lot.
Many enjoyed the freedom from having to move their cars. But others complained that area streets had become filthier than normal because street sweepers no longer made their rounds.
When all the signs in Park Slope were installed, the “No alternate-side” zone spread to Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill and then west.
Now, all that is left is to replace 1,400 signs in Red Hook, a process that will begin on Monday and take three to five weeks. As in the other neighborhoods, the new rules will reduce the street-cleaning parking regulations to 90 minutes on most side streets, down from three hours.
Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman said the summertime parking hiatus got easier each time a neighborhood’s rules were changed.
“I think we’re well over the learning curve by now, with three out of the four areas complete and Red Hook being the last one to do,” Hammerman said. “The hope is that this will be done by the end of September or early October, and [we will be] back to an improved normal.”
