Nyack, Jan 26 — On Saturday and Sunday mornings after the bars close, Nyack’s sidewalks are a mess, covered in cigarette butts, litter — and worse. Nyack’s Village Board is considering a revised parking plan that would generate new revenue to clean up the streets while also giving the evening restaurant business a shot in the arm.
The Village Board will hold a Workshop Meeting tonight at 6:30p to discuss changing the current 11a-9p parking hours to 11a-6p and 11p-6a.
Adjacent merchants have long complained that bar patrons leave trash, butts and vomit on sidewalks far away from the bars — requiring them to start their day cleaning up after someone else’s customers. The proposed plan would use parking fees from the new overnight hours to pay for street cleaning at 6a on weekends.
Nyack’s Mayor Jen White says that it’s fitting that the people who create the mess help pay to keep the streets clean, She said that its possible that any one arrested for disorderly behavior after the bars close might be assigned community service hours to help assist in the clean up.
The proposed plan also makes parking free between the prime restaurant hours of 6p and 11p. Currently, Nyack collects parking fees until 9p.
If the plan is to succeed, the village will need to improve how it communicates this policy change. People are frequently confused about how — and when — they need to feed the village’s munimeters.
The Workshop Meeting to discuss the 11-6 parking plan is scheduled for 6:30p on Thurs Jan 26 in Nyack’s Village Hall.
See also:
- Descartes on Nyack, JC Brotherhood 9/22/2009
- Anarchy in Nyack? 9/20/2009
- Downtown Thrives — Minus the Anarchy, Marianne Olive 9/22/2009
Many mornings when I am downtown Nyack to do a chore, I bristle as I watch store owners, or more likely employees, sweeping the sidewalk in front of their respective stores. Duh? The ‘bristling’ comes from watching them sweep the debris directly into the street instead of scooping it up for disposal. While perhaps well intentioned, this is nothing more than a different form of littering and should be strongly discouraged. The notion that ‘someone else’ will pick it up, is exactly the mentality that caused the litter to begin with.