Street cleaning schedules in a swath of Boerum Hill, Downtown, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill will change drastically after a key neighborhood panel voted to approve a city proposal to cut the hours by half.
Community Board 2 voted 21 to 4 last Tuesday to accept the Department of Sanitation’s proposal to cut alternate-side-of-the-street cleaning hours from twice a week to once a week.
The approval comes after a long fight to get the hours cut — though the board’s Transportation Committee voted last month to reject the proposal because no one from the Department of Sanitation was on hand to answer lingering questions.
This time, though, drivers were elated by the vote.
“The reduction in alternate-side parking regulations has finally been realized,” said Community Board 2 Chairman John Dew. “[It] will bring much needed relief to the community, while helping to reduce unnecessary pollution.”
Longtime Boerum Hill resident and transportation committee member Bill Harris added that the change “may be tough for people who use cars frequently,” but said local streets “are clean enough to justify cleaning once per week.”
The move comes after drivers in Community Board 6, which includes Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus and Red Hook, accepted the same proposal earlier this summer.
Under the plan, street cleaning hours on metered streets will be reduced to half-hour windows from one hour, and residential streets will be cleaned once per week — per side — instead of twice.
Commercial street cleaning would remain the same.
There will be no changes along narrow streets in Brooklyn Heights, where parking is already suspended one day a week on each side from 8 am to 6 pm.
Before the changes can take place, the Department of Transportation must replace old “No Parking” signs, a process that could take between two and three months, said Community Board 2 District Manager Rob Perris. All “No parking” hours will be suspended during that time, as it was in Community Board 6 all summer.
