New York City motorists had to keep up the alternate-side-parking car shuffle even on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 last week.
Alternate-side parking, which is suspended during major religious and cultural observances and holidays — most recently on Labor Day — remained in effect during the city’s full-scale commemoration of its deadliest day in history.
“How insane and disrespectful on the 25th anniversary of 9/11,” an X user raged. “Some retired first responders are crying their eyes out and have to move a car.”
Another person seethed “Couldn’t even have the decency to suspend alternate-side and meter parking for 9/11.”
Alternate-side parking occurs to allow street cleaning, requiring drivers to move their cars during designated hours to different sides of streets so sweeper trucks can do their job.
Drivers who do not comply can be ticketed.
For many drivers, the restricted window means circling for available parking for a maddeningly long time.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order ahead of the anniversary establishing an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service on 9/11 — but it did not extend to parking.
“We recommend temporary suspensions of [alternate-side parking] if there is a reason we cannot or should not clean — for example, snow and ice,” a Department of Sanitation rep told The Post.
Mamdani is not the first mayor to leave the rule in place on 9/11.
According to Sanitation, no mayor has previously suspended alternate-side parking for the anniversary.
A city Department of Transportation representative said suspension dates are determined by legislation.
City Councilwoman Amanda Farías introduced a bill in January that would permanently suspend alternate-side parking every Sept. 11.
The bill has not received a hearing before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this year, despite Farías’s requests.
“My office requested that it be heard in advance of the March, April and June Transportation Committee hearings,” Farías said. “In each instance, the legislation was not placed on the hearing agenda.”
A rep for the council Speaker’s Office pointed to a 2024 hearing on a similar bill, when the then-Adams administration argued there were already too many suspension days.
“No one wants their street to be dirty,” a DSNY representative told The Post on Friday. “Every New Yorker wants and expects a clean street, and the mechanical broom is the best tool for that outcome.”
The committee’s next hearing is Sept. 30. The bill was not on the agenda Friday.
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