By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — While most drivers are forced to sit in their cars or drive around in circles for hours during alternate side no-parking times, Sydney Johnson is free to return home while the street sweeper makes its rounds.
That's because Johnson, a teacher by trade, lives on the Upper West Side, where police allow residents to double park their cars illegally during street cleaning regulation times without the fear of ticketing.
Police and local leaders describe the unofficial arrangement, which is common throughout the outer boroughs but rarer in Manhattan, as a courtesy to residents that has gone on as long as anyone can remember.
"That’s how it's always been," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side and has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years.
"I thought it was the case everywhere," she added.
Under official Department of Transportation rules, "Double parking of passenger vehicles is illegal at all times, including Alternate Side Parking Regulation days, regardless of location, purpose or duration."
Violators can be slapped with $115 fines — nearly twice as much as if they hadn't bothering moving their cars for street cleaning below 96th Street in the first place.
But in large sections of the Upper West Side, drivers are routinely permitted to double park their cars on the opposite side of the street as it's being cleaned. Many leave notes on their dashboards with their telephone numbers in case the owners of the boxed-in cars want to leave.
Drivers can then go home to their families, jobs, or run errands, as long as they return an hour and a half later to re-park their cars on the newly cleaned side of the street.
"It's amazing," Johnson said. "It's a perfect system."
Psychologist Bob Strauss, who has lived on his Upper West Side block for nearly six years, agreed.
"It would be very unfair if you couldn't double park. Where would you go?" he asked, confused. "You'd have to drive around the neighborhood for a long time."
But not everyone approves of the special treatment.
"It's not fair at all," said George Rodriguez, 40, who frequently parks on the Upper East Side, where double-parking laws are strictly enforced.
Rodriguez, a retired police officer who was born and raised in Washington Heights, said the rules should be the same for everybody.
"It should be the same. It's one city," Rodriguez said after finally finding a parking spot on the Upper East Side after circling for an hour.
Double parking is permitted on certain residential and one-way blocks in Washington Heights, sources said.
Upper Manhattan City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who has introduced legislation that would allow all residents to legally park on the restricted side of the street once the street sweeper has passed by, agreed.
"Whatever happens there should happen city-wide," he said.
In fact, the City Council's Transportation Committee is currently considering a law that would allow cars across the city to double park when alternate side of the street parking restrictions are in effect.
As part of the new regulations, drivers would be required to "conspicuously post" their addresses and phone numbers on their dashboards and remain within 10 minutes of their cars.
But many warn the system already isn't working.
One Department of Sanitation supervisor who declined to give his name told DNAinfo that allowing the cars to double park seriously interferes with street cleaning efforts.
"Obviously it hampers Department of Sanitation operations," said the supervisor moments after a confrontation with a delivery truck that was blocking a street narrowed by double-parked cars.
He criticized the NYPD for allowing the practice to continue unchecked.
"It's all illegal," he said. "They're not doing their jobs."
The NYPD did not respond to repeated requests for comment about selective enforcement.
But others said they would hate to see a similar system in place in their neighborhood.
Upper East Side Attorney Ben Tessler, 40, said he would hate to be at the mercy of someone who'd boxed him in.
"I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig in that program," he assured.
In fact, about a third of drivers double parked on one stretch of West 83rd Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue during a recent no-parking regulation time chose to remain in their cars, despite being allowed to leave.
Don Murray, 46, said he likes to stay close to his vehicle so that he's ready at the wheel as soon as the street sweeper passes.
"It's very competitive to get a spot, even if you miss it by a minute," he cautioned, as he sat in the driver's seat with his computer and cell phone at the ready.
Robinson Brown, 23, said he likes to take the hour and a half to nap and relax before the battle for spots begins.
"People fight, even over the double parking spots," he said. "It gets really nasty."
