Shame Stickers for Cars Blocking Street Sweepers Make Controversial Comeback

UWS Council Member Gale Brewer, the lead sponsor of Intro 92 which restored warning parking stickers, and Gregory Anderson, commissioner of NY’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY), were seen affixing inaugural violation stickers to cars on the UWS Aug. 4. That follows a city council vote in June 2026 to bring the stickers back.

“Intro 92 undoes a grave mistake made by a prior City Council and gives us an additional tool to help us effectively clean the city’s streets,” Andersen said at the time of the bill’s passing. “Selfish car owners who prioritize their convenience over clean neighborhoods will soon be peeling stickers off their cars, while also paying for a summons. Our goal is neither writing summonses nor using stickers. We want people to simply comply with the law, so we can clean streets across New York City.”

The stickers, which are bright neon green and can be up to 8.5 x 11 inches, are now in the arsenal of the DSNY, who can attach a warning sticker to any motor vehicle that violates alternate-side parking rules. These rules require drivers to move their cars from one side of the street to another to allow for street sweepers to clean the curbs and streets on specific days and times.

The original 2011 bill, which had prohibited the use of adhesive stickers on cars, had argued the practice was “unnecessarily punitive” and didn’t allow alleged perpetrators the chance to prove their innocence. Additional backlash centered on the potentially damaging aspect of the stickers, with some vehicle owners complaining of marks left on their cars from the adhesive.

NY City Council repealed the 2011 bill by a vote of 41 to 10. The bill was then officially enacted July 30, after a 30-day waiting period in the Mayor’s office, in which Mayor Zohran Mamdani elected to neither sign nor veto the bill, which meant it became law albeit without his signature.

The new stickers are shown to state “This vehicle violated NYC street cleaning rules. As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned.”

Currently the fine for failing to follow alternative-side parking rules is $65.

Some social media posters are pointing out that the fine for failing to move to is still less expensive than paying for a parking garage.

“Yeah, it would be 50% cheaper for me to just pay a ticket every week than pay for a parking spot in my neighborhood,” wrote a poster on r/nyc. “Now, I like having my street be swept so I always move my car for the sweeper, but there is almost zero incentive for me to do so outside of caring about how my street looks.

He also called for the fine to upped. “Tickets should be increased to $100. Alternatively, they can adopt Boston’s draconian method of towing every single car that doesn’t move for the sweeper.”

But another reddit poster wrote that moving twice a week, as is the case on most Manhattan streets is redundant. “I’m not convinced that so many residential blocks even need street cleaning twice per week, assuming the street cleaner is actually free to do its job.

“Run the cleaner by once per week in all but the busiest streets, put a camera on the front of it so offenders are ticketed reliably, and bump up the fines. Not dramatically higher for a first offense, but add steep escalations for repeat offenders so people can’t routinely write it off as a parking expense.”