Police Academy Accused of Stealing Parking Spots

If there is one thing that can make a driver livid it is when a public parking space is illegally made private. We have neighbors who are still complaining about an illegal sidewalk cut on our block five years ago. So we can only imagine the furor those trying to park on East 20th Street between Second and Third Avenues must feel. See the block, which houses the NYPD's Police Academy, is also home to half a dozen home-made Department of Sanitation signs meant which read "No Standing," and then: "Except Authorized Police Academy Vehicles." Those crazy cadets!

Nobody is owning up to the signs, but the DOT says they are looking into it: "We are working with [the NYPD] and will make any necessary changes or corrections to the signage," a spokeswoman told the News. Which doesn't even mean the signs are coming down.

Anyway! To neighbors the signs, which nobody seems to remember going up in the first place, are just a part of a much larger problem: the block is overrun with cop cars. "We don't get street cleaning anymore because cops' cars are always parked here," moaned one. "They are terrible neighbors."

But at least they are terrible neighbors who are increasingly unlikely to fire their weapons, right? Also, we know people who would love to live on a block overrun with the cops. And the whole thing shouldn't be a problem much longer anyway since the NYPD is building a new academy in College Point that will have a very large parking garage when it opens (in two years or so).

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By Garth Johnston in News on January 13, 2011 10:43 AM

Comments [rss]

Dubai Directory

Ridiculous! Police is here to serve us, they are not here for annoying.

Just Me

Lying and stealing are required classes at the Academy.

Guest

When I first heard that Marge was joining the police academy, I thought it would be fun and zany, like that movie "Spaceballs." But instead it was dark and disturbing, like that movie "Police Academy."

Peanut_Butter

Didn't you know...that "CPR" painted on the side of their cars is merely a suggestion?

FU Boy

Entitlement, ignoring and trying to cheat the law, disregard for the public they serve - looks like that academy is doing it's job teaching recruits the basics.

mdiesel

Similarly, residents have been kept up for days on end by Motor Mouth Jones practicing his sirens and gunfire sound effects.

ptginnyc

I live one block north on 21st b/t 2nd & 3rd where we have an actual precinct instead of the academy. I don't see why a few illegal signs on 20th make a difference, as I've noticed that most of the parked cars are the civilian cars owned by the police rather than actual police vehicles (they have a garage on 20th St. for that). So many of the cars have blatantly photo copied parking placards and sometimes just a piece of paper with "PO # XYXY" in the dash, because cops obviously don't write each other tickets. The police vehicles are also parked in front of meters on 3rd Ave where their civilian cars couldn't be left for as long as they wish. Illegal signs or not, cops could take those spots for themselves anyway.

Overall, yes they take away a lot of parking, but it makes sense to me, even with all of the illegal parking placards factored in. Parking in Manhattan sucks anyway and even though it's true that street sweepers can't do their jobs because their cars don't have to obey Sanitation's rules, the block as a whole is quiet, clean, and safe. Last I checked, finding a parking spot on one's own block is lucky; the police make it infinitely more difficult, but boohoo we live in a pedestrian city, no one said finding a spot is easy.