NORTHERN MANHATTAN — Uptown motorists accustomed to moving their cars for alternate side parking can sleep in Monday and for the foreseeable future — parking regulations are suspended indefinitely in northern Washington Heights and Inwood.
The suspensions, which took effect Monday, are necessary for the Department of Transportation to install signs showing the neighborhood's new street cleaning rules. Street cleaning in Washington Heights and Inwood had been reduced from four days a week to two by the Department of Sanitation to make parking easier for uptown drivers.
Community Board 12 passed a resolution asking for the reduction in 2011, citing the area's high street cleanliness rating. The neighborhoods routinely receive more than 90 percent street cleanliness ratings from the Mayor's Office of Operations, and the area scored a 95.6 average rating in February, the most recent month with available data.
The suspensions do not affect parking meters, 8 a.m to 6 p.m., or any other parking rules beyond street cleaning.
The parking rules had been suspended in Washington Heights below West 181st Street since March 18, when the DOT began the first phase of street sign installations. Community Board 12 District Manager Ebenezer Smith said that installations were 99 percent complete in lower Washington Heights as of April 23, and enforcement of the rules will resume on May 6.
