New Yorkers who drove to September 11 memorial events last week found themselves locked in the same parking scramble they face any other Wednesday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, 33, had signed an executive order before the anniversary establishing an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service on 9/11. The designation stopped short of touching parking rules.
Alternate-side parking, which forces drivers to relocate vehicles during designated windows so sweeper trucks can pass, stayed active through the full-scale commemoration of the deadliest day in city history. The Department of Sanitation confirmed that no mayor has ever suspended the practice for the anniversary.
“We recommend temporary suspensions of [alternate-side parking] if there is a reason we cannot or should not clean — for example, snow and ice,” a Department of Sanitation representative said.
The mechanical brooms rolled on despite the date’s significance. Drivers who failed to move faced tickets and the familiar ritual of circling blocks in search of legal spots.
“How insane and disrespectful on the 25th anniversary of 9/11,” an X user wrote. “Some retired first responders are crying their eyes out and have to move a car.”
Another person posted on the platform: “Couldn’t even have the decency to suspend alternate-side and meter parking for 9/11.”
The contrast with other observances stung. Alternate-side parking had been suspended for Labor Day less than two weeks earlier, part of a pattern of pauses for major religious and cultural holidays.
City Councilwoman Amanda Farías, 36, has been pushing to change the policy permanently. She introduced a bill in January that would suspend alternate-side parking every September 11.
“My office requested that it be heard in advance of the March, April and June Transportation Committee hearings,” Farías said. “In each instance, the legislation was not placed on the hearing agenda.”
A representative for the council Speaker’s Office pointed to a 2024 hearing on similar legislation, when the Adams administration argued that the city already had too many suspension days.
“No one wants their street to be dirty,” a DSNY representative said on Friday. “Every New Yorker wants and expects a clean street, and the mechanical broom is the best tool for that outcome.”
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s next hearing is scheduled for September 30. Farías’s bill was not on the agenda as of Friday.