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Placard parking abuses push residents to the edge
Desperate times take desperate measures. In a move that was effective commentary without crossing the line to plain-old-gross (ie, minus the bags), residents have left fecal messages on the roof and windshield of permanently parked city-issued cars that have been camped on Greenwich for what one reader said is two months now. (Both V. and A. sent extensive documentation to me and to Margaret Chin’s office.) Some residents also left hand-written notes; Taste folks asked for cooperation to move off the street for their event — and all three gestures fell on deaf ears not just from the city worker who parked the car, but from just about anyone in charge both in the elected officials offices and the DOB.
Clearly the mayor’s heralded placard reforms were much ado about nothing.
I applaud the act of civil disobedience from the dog owners offering some satisfaction until the city manages to act. There is no rational explanation for cars just left there for free parking. They are clearly not being used for the department’s work.
V. notes that it’s not just those two cars on Greenwich and Chambers alongside Washington Market Park. Here’s her recent accounting:
- 2 other cars further up on Greenwich
- 7 on Reade just east of Greenwich
- 2 on Duane at Hudson (one with a flat tire)
“I’m concerned for my neighborhood,” wrote V. in a letter to Chin. “It’s gotten beyond just an abuse of parking and power, it’s a faulty and ridiculous attempt at fixing a problem that could easily be fixed if an ounce more of thought were put into it. It only benefits lazy Building Department Bureaucrats who don’t want to deal with the situation. And recently, it’s becoming a health issue (dirty streets and bags of dog poop collecting on cars festering…nice image, huh?).”
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I’ve called 311 and sent a picture of the “no parking on Wednesday and Saturday by order of the police department” only to get the response that police investigated and see no issue.
There is a car with an NYPD placard – #77 – that thinks a spot in front of a hydrant, sometimes even blocking part of the crosswalk, is his personal spot and he never gets a ticket. Also, court officer plaques when the car is parked nowhere near the courthouses! No ticket for him either.
@Sara follow @placardabuse on Twitter to see that placard abuse by city workers, but ESPECIALLY the NYPD is a cancer that consumes our streets and puts people at risk in all 5 boroughs each and every single day. We all need to band together on this and demand that Commissioner O’Neil, Mayor De’Blasio and our City Council put an end to this practice.
This kind of abuse is rampant throughout the city (especially by cops). BdB has zero control over his own agencies and his claims of a placard crackdown are a joke. It’s so bad you can literally leave a note written on a napkin claiming you’re a cop on your dash and they will honor it.
There clearly needs to be an independent agency in charge of parking violations. Ticket and tow.
Civil disobedience with full doggie poo bags really? This dog owner found it gross and ugly and did not appreciate it at all.
You guys better not do that in the summer.
I’m confused. The cars are the property of the city – where else do you think they should park? What do the residents who are so pissed off want? The streets with no parked cars? Or room for their own cars?
Clearly the city needs somewhere to park the cars on the weekends and I for one do not want the pollution of making the employees drive the cars to an outer borough to park over the weekend. Seems like this is a two part fight: actual NYC cars with proper license and the police and firemen.
The drama! NYPD placards are a cancer? Good god people.
Om shanti. Enough with the dog poop.
You’re missing the point. The cars are parked in non-parking spots and on top of that are largely abandoned. The cars on Greenwich Street have sat unmoved for weeks which means the street cleaner can’t do their job and the trash piles up along the curb and sewer. Additionally, trucks that make the deliveries for the green market are not able to do what they need to do.
There is no problem with the city cars being parked legally and moved like the rest of the car owners are expected to do.
I own a dog too, I think it’s gross as well, and I don’t want to see dog poo hurled anywhere except in garbage cans. But before you throw poop the other way, understand the article and the problem. It’s not talking about cars used daily by the DoB. These cars have been abandoned for months. MONTHS. There is a surplus of cars. The Dob doesn’t want to warehouse them legally, so they are being warehoused on our streets, illegally parked for days and weeks without moving. And because they are “City Cars”, the cops can’t ticket them because they are on “official business”..even with flat tires and collections of notes and poop bags on display on their windshields. You worry about excess pollution? Do you know how much garbage, gets trapped under a car… that doesn’t move for months….. especially one that is preventing the streets from proper cleaning. Rats are only the beginning. If I illegally parked my car on the street for two days, I would get towed immediately and get several tickets. These cars don’t. And to be honest, Yes, they take up spaces that are allocated for neighborhood residences or people like doormen that work in the neighborhood that can’t afford monthly parking the way most of us can. I’m curious, next time you’re out count how many illegally parked cars are being warehoused in downtown Manhattan. You’ll be shocked. This article is Not about rebellious residents that want free parking. It’s about abuse by lazy Building Department Bureaucrats. And guess what… as soon as this article ran, along with a few calls and letters to Ms. Chin’s office and to Fox News, guess which cars were moved last night, after midnight? That’s right. The ones that have been illegally warehoused on Greenwich and Reade for Months. Coincidence? hardly. The city knows what they are doing is wrong and it needs to be stopped.
Amen Citizen V!