New York City has reinstated the use of brightly colored stickers to enforce its street sweeping regulations after a 14-year pause, aiming to increase compliance and improve cleanliness on city streets. The move began Tuesday morning on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where sanitation workers and City Councilwoman Gale Brewer personally placed neon-green, shield-shaped stickers on vehicles that had not moved for street cleaning.

The stickers serve as a public notice stating, “This vehicle violated N.Y.C. street cleaning rules. As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned,” and include instructions for removal using warm water and a scraper. Accompanying the stickers is the existing $65 fine for violating alternate-side parking rules. The enforcement effort was launched around 8:30 a.m. on West 90th Street near Columbus Avenue, a location known for poor compliance with twice-weekly parking restrictions on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Councilwoman Brewer, who sponsored legislation this year to reintroduce the stickers, said the current situation was untenable. “People in the neighborhood are livid. The streets are filthy,” she said. “It is really depressing to see the sweeper go down the middle of the street because every single space has a car in it.” Residents like Mary O’Reilly, who followed the rules and moved her car, expressed hope that the stickers would encourage better behavior. “It is frustrating when you come out to move your car and others haven’t,” she said, describing the difficulty of maneuvering around parked cars and maneuvering in the presence of sanitation trucks during sweeping hours.

The stickers were originally used by the city for 25 years but were banned by the City Council in 2012 amid complaints that they could leave adhesive residue on vehicles and were considered overly punitive. Former Councilman David G. Greenfield, who sponsored the bill to remove the stickers, criticized their return. “A ticket is a penalty. Gluing trash to someone’s windshield is vandalism,” he said on social media. In contrast, Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson emphasized that the stickers are not intended as a punishment but as a tool to facilitate street cleanliness. “The goal is not to put stickers on cars — the goal is to clean the street,” he stated.

Alongside the sticker campaign, the Sanitation Department is launching a pilot program in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood aimed at reducing street sweeping days from two to one weekly in hopes that fewer restrictions will improve compliance. Commissioner Anderson described this as a “carrot and stick” approach, with the stickers acting as the deterrent and reduced sweeping frequency as the incentive.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani voiced support for the renewed enforcement during a separate news briefing, underscoring the importance of uninterrupted street cleaning. The city’s initiative comes amid longtime tension between enforcement efforts and resident frustrations, balancing the need for public sanitation with concerns over inconvenience and property treatment.