Results tagged “parking”

Today the DOT is launching a pilot program in Park Slope called "Park Smart." Drivers on parts of Seventh and Fifth Avenues will see the meter rates rise from the current $0.50 an hour to $1.50 an hour during peak hours, from noon to 4 p.m. At all other times, parking in those areas will cost $.75 an hour. The hope is that higher rates will encourage faster turnover of metered parking spots, but some motorists and retailers were ready to give their verdict before the parking could even get smart. One local tells NY1, "It's already inconvenient enough in Park Slope to find parking. It's really No Park Slope. So to make it more difficult, you know, when you do find a space, to pay more for it, I think it is a little bit obnoxious." And Crown Heights resident James Bates tells Channel 2, "Everything is costing [more]. It's not right. It's not fair." The DOT insists the program was not motivated by a need to increase revenue, and that if the Park Smart pilot is a success, other neighborhoods will lose their stupid parking.

Police and firefighters park their vehicles at expired meters and in the middle of bike lanes all over town, but in Brooklyn the violations are particularly rampant, prompting outrage on blogs like Brownstoner. Now the Daily News has chimed in, confirming a "slew of trouble spots" where unmarked vehicles belonging to cops, firefighters and other government workers park illegally with impunity. On Jay Street reporters found 18 cars parked at expired meters; most "appeared" to be owned by cops or firefighters. Over on Adams Street, more than 20 cars were parked in a "No Standing Anytime" zone last week, displaying various permits including the NYPD and the court officers union. Also on Adams, a Chevy Blazer with a police department placard was parked in the bike lane. As anyone cyclist knows, cops love bike lane parking, and other motorists routinely block bike lanes with impunity. A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg reminded the News that the city has slashed the number of placards issued to government workers by 54%. But Michael Burke of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership says parking laws need to be enforced because "it adds to a sense of lawlessness in the community."

In recent years, drivers are finding that they have an easier time getting their parking tickets reduced, but a more difficult time having them waved off altogether. This is because of a little publicized settlement program introduced in 2005 by the city's Department of Finance. People who challenge citations have the opportunity to settle their tickets with a clerk if they choose to opt out of overturning them before a judge. But a Department spokesperson explains, “Judges are responsible for determining whether or not a violation has occurred, which wasn’t the case before..They were dismissing tickets, they were offering large reductions." Some are concerned however that the one of the reasons that tickets in those cases are getting waved less frequently is because administrative law judges, per diem employees, feel vulnerable to pressure from their superiors all the same and that "the pressure is on" to collect revenue under the new system.

Former MTA board member Alan Friedberg got so busted today by the Daily News, which is running photos of him illegally parking his bloody Jaguar with a police-issued parking permit on the dashboard. (For added indignation, the photographer caught him standing by the car with his sneering, fur coat-clad wife.) Like other past and current MTA board members, Friedberg was supposed to turn in the placard last year, but on Sunday he was spotted parking in a restricted zone on 43rd Street. He says it was only for a few minutes so he could check out a demonstration against Israel's invasion of Gaza. Of course, the abuse of parking perks has long been a hallmark of "public service"; who could forget City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams's infamous Porsche park job in Park Slope? Or MTA board member Nancy Shevell's illegal SUV parking while she got her nails done?

Earlier this year the DOT announced that alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules in Park Slope would be suspended for several months while workers changed the signs. Local drivers were worried their precious spots would be overwhelmed with outsiders angling for parking, but according to a study released by the DOT yesterday, the increased number of parking spaces made no difference, and finding a spot in Park Slope was no more aggravating than usual. Bruce Schaller, the deputy commissioner of transportation, tells the Times the suspension of parking rules "had no effect on how hard it is to find a parking place, and no effect on how often people used their cars." And according to a survey, the average length of residents’ quests for parking was 27 minutes, though 40% claimed they found parking in 10 minutes or less (and they haven't stopped bragging about it).

    

As we announced on Monday, a group of cycling clowns rode along Kent Avenue in Williamsburg today to protest what they call a growing "anti-bike sentiment in Brooklyn." Organized by Times Up, the ride was a response of sorts to vocal community opposition to the bike lane, which some residents and business owners blame for a sudden dearth of parking. Last month Hasidic Jews in the largely Satmar section of South Williamsburg vowed to protest the bike lane by blocking traffic on Kent.

We continue to receive emails about the controversial Kent Avenue bike lane in Brooklyn, which has become the front line in the battle over bike lanes. On one side are business owners and residents who insist that the new "No Stopping" signs on Kent, installed to accommodate the bike lane, are onerous; on the other side are cyclists who enjoy the sense of a safer commute between north and south Brooklyn, and cherish the hope for a Brooklyn Greenway completely separate from traffic. Here's an email in response to yesterday's story about a cyclist who says Hasidim in South Williamsburg are making good on their promise to obstruct traffic in protest:

Things have gotten pretty terrible in the saga of the Kent Ave. bike lane, at least for the people who live or work on this block. Today I had to drive home my 5 year old daughter from hospital, after she went through surgery last week, it was 6 p.m. when we arrived in front our home at 450 Kent Avenue and it was freezing cold outside, after driving around for 15 minutes, I finally found a halfway illegal parking spot 4 blocks away from my home, I had to walk with my cranky just out of hospital daughter in my hands, all while she was complaining why I had to park so far.

Continue reading "Bike Lane Brouhaha: Officials Backpedal on Kent Ave"

Drivers, it's the last Friday in November—do you know where your car is? The day after Thanksgiving was the most-ticketed day of the last fiscal year, according to an extensive analysis of parking tickets conducted by the Times. The study concluded that parking tickets issued citywide have surged 42 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office. During the last fiscal year, the city raked in $624 million in parking fines, which is more than the city spends to run the entire Department of Transportation. Officials, maintaining a straight face, insist the parking enforcement is not driven by revenue goals.

The battle over bike lanes is heating up, with members of the Hasidic community in South Williamsburg vowing to block traffic in protest against a new bike lane on Kent Avenue. You'll recall that some of the opposition has to do with the increasing number of female cyclists riding through the neighborhood wearing immodest clothing. The Hasidim are also fuming over a parking ticket blitz last October when, to make way for the bike lane, traffic cops enforced a new change in parking rules on Shabbos, when Orthodox Jews don't operate machinery.

Saturday, DOT, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means Orthodox Jews don't work, don't handle money, don't drive a car, and sure don't roll their wheels to the opposite side of the street to obey city parking regulations. Nevertheless, traffic cops went ahead and enforced a new change in parking rules in the predominantly Orthodox enclave of South Williamsburg, writing tickets for over 90 vehicles that hadn't been moved by 6:30 a.m. Saturday. The new parking rules have been implemented so the DOT can begin installing more bike lanes through the neighborhood, a move that's already prompted opposition from community members who object to the surge in cyclists—most of whom are immodestly dressed. DOT spokesman Scott Gastel tells the Post that the "DOT gave advance notification to community leaders and ... officials that signage would change." But because of the outcry, Gastel said all the $110 tickets would be dismissed.

Don't think for a second that Margaret Arrighi, head of the Bronx Business Alliance, lives in New York City—to her it's the Serengeti, and the traffic agents are the bloodthirsty predators: "They wait for you to park. They come up from behind, like a tiger waiting for its prey. They snap the machine and the ticket has begun to be written. Instead of tapping on the window, instead of asking you to move, they say, ‘Don’t move the car.’ " Arrighi and other Bronx merchants are pressuring local officials to do something about what they say is an excessive amount of parking tickets being issued in the Bronx, driving away their customers.

       

Hope you finished all you last-minute Park(ing) Day shopping, because the last thing you want is to be rushing around buying gifts on Park(ing) Day proper—especially since there are fewer places to park. For the uninitiated, Park(ing) Day is an international celebration of transformed parking spaces, a time for families and friends to gather together on a temporary patch of grass laid out on the street, while trying hard not to think about all the traffic plowing by just inches away. New York City has over 50 creative little park(ing) spots this year, making 2008 the best Park(ing) Day ever! God Bless us, every one. (Even car owners.) But once 6 p.m. comes, all these urban oases get handed back over to the drivers, so get out there and enjoy it. Details on all locations here.

Well, that didn't take long. Just hours after the grand reopening of the Manhattan Bridge archway, a "non-vehicular" zone, someone has found a pretty sweet parking spot. Tip: Just move the planter guarding either entrance!

As the city is stripping away 50,000 teachers' parking permits, out of the current 63,390 (apparently there are only 10,000 parking spaces near schools), now principals are faced with potentially many unhappy teachers. The NY Times finds that some schools have extra parking spaces while others have to share spaces with other schools. The the principal of P.S. 21/Crispus Attucks School in Bed-Stuy explained why many of his teachers drive, though the subway is a block away, “There’s a lot of shootings around here. They take cars because of the chances they take walking through the neighborhood. I hope they understand when they don’t get parking permits.”

Despite the economic tailspin, developers are still moving forward with luxury residential buildings that – assuming anyone can still afford to occupy them – will result in 170,000 new cars on city streets by 2030, thanks to city regulations requiring new developments to contain a minimum number of built-in parking spots. That estimate comes from public transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, who held a press conference at City Hall yesterday urging the city to change the policy, which they say will produce 431,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

In the near future, info about available parking spots could be displayed on street signs or sent to any phone with Internet capability, if New York follows the lead of San Francisco, which is testing the program. The new technology relies on embedded-in-the-pavement wireless sensors that detect the presence of a vehicle. The Sun reports that Councilman John Liu is pushing for it, but Bloomberg is concerned that it will cause reckless competition for parking spots: "We don't want people to start speeding and running past red lights." That would be unthinkable.

Not-so-fun fact: According to the city’s DOT, it’s illegal to lock you bike to anything other than a bicycle rack. Thankfully, it’s not a law that seems to be enforced, but anyone who’s commuted by bicycle long enough will have the experience of finding the sign you locked your bike to removed so workers can tear up the sidewalk.

A number of police unions representing different segments of the NYPD filed a joint complaint against the City with the Board of Collective Bargaining, saying that Mayor Bloomberg's effort to cut the number of park-anywhere-you-feel-like placards is an economic hardship and a violation of state labor laws. The suit does acknowledge that there is nothing in union contracts regarding the issuance of placards, however.

It’s a common complaint from cyclists that the NYPD doesn’t seem too interested in ticketing the myriad drivers who use the city’s bike lanes as a double-parking lot. (My Bike Lane is dedicated to the phenomenon.) And it’s not uncommon to see a cop car idling in a bike lane while the officer does a little shopping. But this is getting ridiculous: A Clinton Hill blog reader reports that the NYPD has been parking what looks to be a fleet of squad cars in a "Class II" bike lane on DeKalb Avenue near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn.

This intersection has already become a traffic nightmare, and now cyclists have to divert out into traffic that’s already dangerous. Surely there must be a better way to arrange this. With a huge increase in neighborhood traffic (especially on Sundays with the Flea), this isn’t cool.

One of the lead detectives in the murder of Imette St. Guillen was ticketed and suspended for using a photocopied parking placard in Brooklyn last week. The ticket was issued in front of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, where Det. Sean McTighe parked in front of a fire hydrant.

Starting Monday, alternate-side-of-the-street parking will be suspended on residential streets in Park Slope until further notice. The parking reprieve is being granted while the city changes all the signage to reflect a big change in the alternate-side parking rules: On street cleaning days, the duration of the “No Parking” times will be cut from three hours to 90 minutes in Park Slope.

Passing a vehicle across a double line in New York State is a 3-point offense. It's difficult to find out what the penalty is for parking across a double line. New Yorkers are overly familiar with egregious parking jobs, but GerritsenBeach.net had to admire the triple-parking job that some neighbors accomplished recently. Apparently, the diagonal hash marks on the left of the road indicated to one driver that the street was as good as a parking lot.

By contrast, there were about 11,000 spaces in Lower Manhattan available for drivers with placards, including spots designated for authorized vehicles, loading zones, no-parking zones, and all the metered and unregulated spaces open to the public. Many placards allow free parking in metered spaces.Reducing the number of placards issued by the City has been a goal of Mayor Bloomberg's second term. The Mayor wants to reduce the number of placards issued to civil servants by 20%. Currently, there are more than 140,000 vehicles with free-parking placards, not including counterfeit and expired emblems.

A proposal by City Council Member Hiram Monserrate would give hybrid car drivers free parking at meters for a year after their initial purchase. If the legislation passes, drivers with receipts for hybrid cars could apply for the permits, which the Queens councilman says would cost the city little in lost revenue, because the taxes from new car sales would make up for the quarters lost at parking meters.

In a few days the city will begin its promised crackdown on the glut of parking placards issued to civil servants. But according to Uncivil Servants, a website that documents illegally parked cars displaying city permits, employees of Park East, an Upper East Side synagogue, have been using bogus DIY parking placards for years. And since they don’t even work for the city, their privileges won’t be affected by the new rules.

Demonstrating just how valuable free parking in New York City is, a rash of smash and grab thefts has struck areas in Washington Heights and the Bronx, where firefighters have had their car windows broken and parking placards stolen. Most of the thefts have occurred right outside of firehouses, usually when members are called out to a fire, according to the New York Post.

We've been following the progress of the Smart Car's U.S. introduction for a while and last month it was reported that they would be making their way to NYC this month. Jalopnik took a ride in the first Smart Car and has photographs of the 8.8' by 5.1' car in some super scenic NYC spots.

Back in 2006, an agreement signed the day construction started for the new Yankee Stadium promised the team would pay $1.2 million a year in cash and in kind to a fund benefiting Bronx residents for 40 years. It was a gesture to make up for the inconvenience during construction and loss of parkland the new stadium was costing the neighborhood. After a year and half, none of the money has been distributed - and it's unclear who will be distributing it, if ever.

Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that he would reduce the number of parking permits for civil servants by 20% has annoyed yet another group. Joining police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency workers are teachers.