A bill introduced in the City Council this month would suspend alternate-side parking for Losar, the Tibetan Buddhist New Year, marking a governmental rite of passage for some of New York City’s newest residents.
Councilmember Julie Won (D-Queens) introduced the bill earlier this month to recognize the holiday on the city’s street-cleaning calendar, which would allow people to keep their cars parked without fear of a ticket.
Won’s office estimates there are 61,000 New Yorkers who celebrate Losar – including Tibetans, Bhutanese, Highland Nepalese, Sikkimese, Mongolians, Monpas, and more.
New York City is home to the largest number of Tibetans in the country, with many of them arriving after Congress allowed more refugees from Tibet, Nepal, and India to come to the United States in 1990.
The bill would continue the city’s trend of recognizing its many different cultures, said Won, who represents neighborhoods including Sunnyside and Woodside, which is home to the cultural hub called the Tibetan Community of NY and NJ.
She noted it was only in recent years that some people stopped saying Chinese New Year and began using Lunar New Year, a more inclusive greeting that also honors Koreans, Vietnamese, and everyone else who celebrates the holiday.
“My whole childhood, I’ve had to tolerate everyone being like, Happy Chinese New Year,” the Korean immigrant said.
Although Tibetan Buddhists follow a completely different astrological calendar, Losar is sometimes lumped in with the Lunar New Year because it can fall around the same time, Won said. But Losar can actually be celebrated within a two month range of Lunar New Year, depending on the calendar.
As the city has recognized more holidays, from the Muslim holidays of Eid to the newly-added Tisha B’Av, one of the holiest days for Jewish New Yorkers, Won felt it was the right time for Losar.
“We wanted to make sure we did it for the Himalayan community,” she said. Adding to the significance of the parking holiday is that taxi and ride-share driving is one of the most common jobs for Tibetans and other people who celebrate Losar, she noted.
Norbu Tsering, the president of the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey in Woodside, called the bill a “recognition of our culture and tradition,” and “a very significant consideration.”
First Signal of Success
There are currently 37 officially-recognized holidays for alternate-side parking suspension, with some spreading across two days. Street-cleaning can also be suspended for weather or other emergencies.
Alternate-side parking restrictions were first introduced in 1950 by the city’s Sanitation department across a few blocks in Manhattan, and eventually spread to most of the city.
Almost as soon as the restrictions were introduced, suspensions to them were included at the behest of different groups.
A 1985 article in Newsday, citing a former spokesperson for what was then called the Traffic Bureau, said Jewish leaders initially had some of their High Holy Days exempt from the parking rules because of restrictions over operating cars. In the decades since, more religious and federal holidays have been added.
In diverse New York City, having your day recognized isn’t just about adding another day to a calendar, said Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor.
“The suspension of alternate side of the street parking is the first signal that an ethnic
community is now a serious force in politics,” he told THE CITY, adding that the “real sign of success” is having your holiday added to the public school calendar.
(The most recent addition was the Hindu holiday of Diwali, but all the holidays also mean trading off for potential snow days, since the state requires a 180 day school year that the city barely meets, in part because of all the different groups whose holidays are recognized.)
Before any days are added to the alternate-side-parking suspension calendar, the bill will have to be debated and voted on by the Council.
Refugees like Tenzin Dorjee, the former Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet who now lives in Rego Park, recalled feeling instantly at home in the city after feeling like a minority his whole life. He was raised in India and moved to the United States at 18, and to the city in 2005.
“From day one, I felt nobody was strange, nobody was foreign, nobody was an outlier in New York – you fit right in,” he said. At his recent Losar celebrations, his friends were “thrilled” to hear about the bill.
“It would really be a huge recognition of belonging in the city,” he said.