Snow rule switcheroo

After more than a year’s work on legislation to suspend Alternate Side Parking (ASP) restrictions in the event of severe weather, a completely different rule sailed through unanimous votes in the transportation committee and full City Council in one day.
The first bill, “Intro 546-A” was introduced in the council on March 28, 2007, after the “Valentine’s Day storm” of February 14 that year, which locked many parked cars in sheets of ice.
Even though the city suspended street cleaning operations, the ostensible rationale for ASP, thousands of tickets were issued, that were ultimately waived by Mayor Michael Bloomberg after a public outcry.
The original legislation called for suspension of ASP restrictions for 48 hours, whenever two or more inches of snow fell, according to “the National Weather Service or other appropriate governmental entity.”
It took until a year ago on December 18, for the council’s Committee on Transportation, chaired by Councilmember John Liu, to hold a hearing on what was then Intro 546. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty testified.
The amended version finally sailed through a joint meeting of Liu’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday, December 16 of this year.
“The commissioners had reservations about the necessity of the bill,” said a spokesperson for Liu. “You’ll notice the ‘A’ which means it was amended,” she added as one reason for the extended period from its introduction to a vote of the committee.
Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg had conveyed some reservations of his own about the result.
When the bill reached the full council two days later, it got “sent back to committee,” which is the rough legislative equivalent of death.
Instead, on December 18, there appeared “Intro 895,” that Liu called “an improvement” over the bill crafted by his committee for a year-and-a-half. “We are pleased to have collaborated with the mayor’s office to craft Intro No. 895,” Liu said.
The substitute bill was introduced to the council by the same 19 councilmembers who had sponsored the original, with four additional sponsors.
It was designated as “pre-considered,” meaning that no public hearings were required. Hours later, it was all passed and ready for mayoral signature.
Intro 895 suspends ASP rules when city snowplows are deployed. “Car owners will no longer be required to move their cars for street-cleaning once the plows are deployed, because street cleaning itself becomes effectively suspended,” said a spokesperson for Liu.
It also contains a provision that allows the city to re-impose ASP rules once the Sanitation Department is prepared to clean the snow from curbside lanes and resume street cleaning.
However, instead of a hard-and-fast 48 hour suspension based on highly publicized snowfall reports of the first bill, the “improved” bill makes suspending ASP restrictions the province of the Department of Sanitation and leaves the parking public up in the air as to when the restrictions could go back into force.
The new law will take effect 30 days after it is signed by Mayor Bloomberg, which is expected to be soon.