If there’s one thing that New York drivers really, really hate, it’s those almost-impossible-to-remove fluorescent stickers that get slapped on the windows of parked cars that block city street-sweepers.
Never mind that the Sanitation Department insists the stickers more than serve their purpose. They’re applied about 400 times a day — and have reduced substantially the number of drivers who ignore alternate-side parking rules.
No matter: The City Council never misses a chance to pander.
So the assembled worthies this week unanimously passed a bill barring Sanit from attaching the stickers.
The council argues that the stickers violate due process — essentially finding drivers guilty without benefit of a legal hearing.
Puh-leeeeze.
What’s next? Two rounds of appeals, a trip through the courts — and then a Sanitation cop slaps on the sticker?
This is a due-process-obsessed city — to say nothing of society — but enough is enough.
The head of Sanitation’s bureau of cleaning, John Nucatola, testified at a council hearing in November that city streets had an average cleanliness rating of 73 before the stickers were introduced in 1987.
These days, the average is 94.8.
Nevertheless, Councilman David Greenfield (D-B’klyn.) insists that the Sanitation Department’s job “is to keep streets clean — not deface cars.”
Apparently, though, that’s precisely what “defacing cars” is doing — keeping the streets clean.
Here’s an idea: Don’t want a sticker on your car? Don’t block the street-sweeper.
How hard is that?
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