Alternate side ‘shame sticker’ ends up on a Sanitation Department car

A neon-green alternate side parking “shame sticker” turned up on the window of a New York City Department of Sanitation car on Monday, and the agency says one of its own workers did not put it there. A photo posted on X showed the city vehicle parked on a sidewalk next to a row of townhouses.

A DSNY spokesperson said the sticker seems to have come from an unhappy driver who removed the one left on their own car and pressed it onto the Sanitation vehicle. “This was not affixed by a DSNY employee,” the spokesperson said.

Why NYC puts shame stickers on cars

The oversized stickers target drivers who keep ignoring street cleaning rules. The city started using them in August, after Manhattan Council Member Gale Brewer sponsored a bill that lifted a ban on the practice that had been in place for a decade.

The stickers have drawn pushback from residents and lawmakers, who call them vandalism and say peeling them off is a hassle. Printed instructions at the bottom advise owners to remove them with “warm water and a scraper.”

The spokesperson said the stickers are meant to get people to move their cars as the law requires so street sweepers can clean the curbs.

Camera enforcement could replace the stickers

DSNY said it still hopes lawmakers in Albany will approve automated camera enforcement for parking, which would let the city stop using the stickers altogether. Legislation that would rely on cameras to go after parking violators is backed by state Sen. Julia Salazar, with Assembly Member Steven Raga sponsoring it in the Assembly.

The city already runs this kind of enforcement on MTA buses. Cameras mounted on the buses issue tickets to vehicles sitting in bus lanes, double-parked along bus routes or blocking bus stops.