Street Cleaning

One of the pains in the ass about owning a car in NYC is the fact that they (you know THEY) make you move it so that the streets can be swept. Now, I am all for clean streets. I have seen historical evidence of dirty streets and I am pretty sure that if the garbage is left un-checked there will be rats and roaches and pigeons...oh my! So, that leaves the question of where exactly to park. I used to live in The Bronx; you parked as close to your house/apt as you could, and that was that. Some people took up two parking spots with one car so you would not park in front of their house, some used a second (unregistered I think) car as a place holder so they never lost the "perfect spot" and some, like me, drove around in circles looking for a spot.

Well, as the French say "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose." I STILL drive around in circles looking for a spot, but now I have to do it twice a week at the least to avoid the ticket. There are certain parts of the on street parking that need to be free of cars so the street sweeper truck (AWESOME) can, ummm sweep the street. So, no matter where you park there are signs that alert the literate as to when the street sweeper trucks will be coming by. As with all things municipal you get a time frame, 9:00-11:00 Tues-Fri, 11:30-1:00 Mon-Thurs. So, now the chess match begins.

I am balancing connviniance with proximity. How close can I park to my building? (Not right in front mind you, the neighbors and the radio cars getting radios installed seem to have eminent domain on those particular spots) When do I have to move my car? What days, what hours? And sometimes you forget where exactly you parked and wake up in the middle of the night worried that you made a mistake and parked on the East side of the street, not the West. Then having moved your car for the sweeper, where did you move it? I often find myself in a spot for the NEXT round of sweeping the same day. I then run down to my car about 45 minutes before the window of the FIRST sweeping closes, park my car in a clean spot and wait until I can safely leave my venerable Tahoe Blue (blue Nissan Pathfinder).

For Instance: The WEST side of the main parking are is swept Tuesday and Friday between 9:30 and 11:00. The South side of my street is swept Tuesday and Friday between 11:30 and 1:00pm. So, I could get to Tahoe Blue at 9:15 and move her over to my street, find a spot on the south side of the street (not ideal spots because if you are in them in another two hours you will be ticketed/towed). Then, around 10:15 return to Tahoe Blue and drive over to a spot on the freshly swept west side of the parking street. I will sit and read a book and listen to ESPN Radio (1050 NYC Max Kellerman show) until 11:00 when I will be able to leave the car until the next round of shifting.

If you think it is confusing to read, think how hard it is to write, let alone do on a twice-a-week basis.