By Philip Newman
The City Council will soon vote on whether to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of its decision to add the Asian Lunar New Year, Purim and Ash Wednesday to the holidays when street parking rules are suspended.
The Council Transportation Committee voted 6-0 last week to begin the process of overriding the mayor’s veto.
Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) is the Transportation Committee chairman.
The proposal to override the mayor now goes before the full City Council and proponents said they expected it to pass.
A veto requires a two-thirds majority of the City Council. The original bill passed the Council with fewer than five no votes.
When he vetoed the bill, the mayor said he did so because suspending alternate side of the street parking on the Lunar New Year would make streets dirtier since the event would be in addition to all the other occasions when the streets are not cleaned.
“The mayor also wrote in his disapproval that these did not appear to be significant enough observances to suspend parking rules,” Liu said.
The Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing is one of the largest celebrations of the year in the borough, drawing thousands of onlookers from the Chinese, Korean and South Asian communities.
Alternative side of the street parking is now suspended on Christmas, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hoshanah, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Ascension Thursday, Feast of the Assumption, Feast of All Saints, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the first two days of Succoth, Shimini Atzareth, Simcha Torah, Shevuoth, Orthodox Holy Thursday, Orthodox Good Friday, the first two and last two days of Passover, the Moslem Holidays of Eid Ul-fitr and Eid Ul-Adha, and all state and national holidays.
“I feel that what the mayor actually objects to is the lost revenue resulting from the parking tickets that would not be issued if a new holiday was added,” Liu said.
The City Council bill on addition of the Asian Lunar New Year states that the date of observance shall be the first day of the second lunar month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar year.
Liu said he believed that adding the Asian Lunar New Year would have little effect on street cleanliness and that there was a good chance some of the days observed would coincide with days streets were not scheduled to be cleaned anyway, such as Sundays.
The Council will also vote on whether to override the mayor’s veto of Intro.37, which would add Ash Wednesday and the Jewish holiday Purim to the list of days when parking rules are suspended.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
