Results tagged “parking”

Today the City Council is expected to pass two laws that would give motorists more wiggle room when fighting parking tickets. The first bill would create a five-minute grace period for drivers for certain no parking zones, such as alternate side parking regulations and expired Muni-Meters. (The bill does not include regular coin-operated, single-space meters, seen failing here.) A second piece of legislation would require the DOT to post notices of new and changed parking restrictions in affected neighborhoods and online up to one week in advance. (Last October, Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg were outraged when the DOT wrote tickets for over 90 vehicles that were violating new parking regulations—on a Saturday.)

An unusual complaint about carriage horses was sent in to the NY Times' Metropolitan. A woman tells of her harrowing parking experience, saying she was about to back in to a spot on Central Park West, across from her apartment building, but "as soon as I put the car in reverse to parallel park, I noticed a horse and buggy..."

Because the Department of Transportation is changing alternate side of the street parking rules (the streets will be cleaned just once a week, versus twice), parking rules will be suspended as the signs are being changed out. Which will take 6-8 weeks. One resident said, "I heard about it a while ago, and I've been waiting on this religiously. I'm thrilled it's finally happening." The Daily News says, "Any community board can request a reduced street-cleaning schedule from the Sanitation Department." In this case, it took a year and a half to get it approved.

Ever seen a Vespa with a parking ticket on it? It seems most owners—and the NY Post is looking at you Matthew Broderick and Liev Schreiber—are going to great measures to avoid getting ticketed for illegally parking. But beware, Vespians, the paper reports that "Cops are cracking down on hipster Vespa owners who've taken to removing the vehicle-identification numbers from their rides."

In a radical move, the DOT will begin prohibiting cops from parking on the sidewalk outside the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn. Officers at Transit Bureau District 30 have parked on the sidewalk for years, but a new pedestrian plaza set to open next month will mean the end of a longstanding police privilege. Pedestrians and straphangers are rejoicing, with Jameer Henson, a law clerk, telling the Daily News, "In the mornings it always bottlenecks at the top of the steps because there's only like half a sidewalk for the people coming and going to the subway. I won't be sad to see the cars go."

The saga of the Kent Avenue bike lane continues! First the Orthodox Satmar Jews in South Williamsburg objected to the old bike lane because of the influx of immodestly-dressed female cyclists, then local merchants complained that customers and delivery trucks had nowhere to park. Barricades were threatened, fake detour signs were put up, and clowns rushed to the scene. Responding to the whining, the DOT ripped up part of Kent and changed it to northbound-only traffic, creating a dedicated bike lane buffered by parking spots. And everyone was happy some were placated!

Believe it or not, we don't publish every egregious bike lane blocking photo that lands in our inbox, but this one's just too delicious to pass up. Taken on the Eighth Avenue bike lane, which is separated from traffic by a row of parking, exhibit A shows a Rite Aid tractor trailer transforming the bike lane into an unloading zone. The reader who sent it tells us this was by the Rite Aid on West 20th Street. Though it's probably tempting for cyclists to react self-riteously to such a photo, one wonders how businesses are supposed to receive deliveries with such a bike lane design. Certainly, they can't be expected to park around the corner and use a hand truck!

The Parks Department has been letting a concessionaire charge drivers $18 per car to park on grassy playing fields in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and some people in Queens are mad. Well, one person, at least; a park advocate named Greg Godfrey. He's outraged that the parkland is being gobbled up by cars on days when the U.S. Open overlaps with Mets games, which will happen for the last time tonight when the Mets play the Marlins at Citifield, adjacent to the tennis center. So taxpayers who use the park for cricket and soccer have been relegated to dusty fields, and Godfrey gripes to the Daily News, "When you constantly compress open space and green space, you're reducing the oxygen in the fields and that's where you're losing grass growth." Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski calmly responds that, "You need to give and take, and we all make room for each other," and promises that the USTA reseeds the parking areas. But Godfrey won't be satisfied until somebody builds a multi-level parking deck for sports fans, which Lewandowski acknowledges as a nice idea, it's just that paying for it is "a stumbling block."

In the latest City Room "Complaint Box" column (the previous one was about pregnant ladies and subway seats), Ray Rivera takes on the bad parking jobs in his northern Manhattan neighborhood. There's the cop and Buildings Department employee who "live in the neighborhood and park illegally every day in front of fire hydrants or in No Standing zones...They place city placards on their dashboards claiming to be on official duty. As official abuses of power go, this is fairly harmless, I know. But I consider it a gateway to bigger crimes, the way some people say marijuana leads to heavier drugs. Today it’s illegal parking; tomorrow, payoffs from the mob." (Still, Rivera and his neighbors have decided to stay silent, vs. having those city employees look for legal parking with the rest of them.) As for the civilian discourteous parkers, like the sporty Silver Mazda that insists on taking up two spaces even after notes left by neighbors, Rivera fantastzes about plastering "his car with those annoyingly sticky green notices the Sanitation Department uses when you forget to move on alternate-side parking days. You know — the kind you can never fully remove, even with hot water and a scraper."

If only the Post could shed its righteous light on every injustice: After yesterday's scoop on the guy whose Mitsubishi was towed after the DOT moved a diplomats-only parking sign, the mayor himself has ordered a full refund! On Thursday morning Shavit Mekeiten parked his car on East 41st Street near the New Zealand Consulate, but later workers dug out the diplomats-only sign and moved it fifteen feet, rendering Mekeiten's spot illegal. Soon an NYPD tow truck hauled the car away, and Mekeiten had to pay the $185 tow fee plus a $95 ticket for not having diplomatic plates. After hearing about the incident yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg responded, "I think it is obvious that it is unfair for him to pay a ticket. So, you can rest assured he will be provided with a full refund and our apologies for the inconvenience." But what about all the unfair towing you don't read about in the tabloids? The City Council is actually considering a bill requiring city workers post signs notifying drivers about parking rule changes, but until then our only hope is the Post's constant vigilance.

It was 3:30 a.m. on Thursday when Shavit Mekeiten legally parked his Mitsubishi on East 41st Street near Second Avenue. But six hours later, DOT workers dug out the diplomats-only sign that had been behind Mekeiten's car and moved it fifteen feet—to create an extra spot for the New Zealand Consulate. Voilà! Mekeiten was now parked illegally, and an NYPD tow truck soon arrived to take the car away, despite bystanders' protestations. Doorman Nick Perkaj tells the Post he tried to reason with the tow-truck driver: "I know that car! They just moved the sign! The tow-truck driver just said, 'I don't give a f- - -,' and they towed the car." To get his Mitsubishi back from the Manhattan tow pound, Mekeiten had to pay the $185 tow fee and a $95 ticket for not having diplomatic plates. He tells the Post, "They're heartless. They have no conscience. They treated me like I shot someone. This is really, really unfair. I didn't do anything wrong." Earlier this month some NYPD tow truck drivers anonymously informed the Post that they're expected to meet a quota of four tows per day, and if they fall short they're punished with less overtime, assigned undesirable shifts, or have their time-off requests delayed.

Lactivists are probably still reeling from the IKEA incident, but now CityRoom reports that on July 30th, Enrique Velez and Marta Lily were ticketed while breastfeeding in their parked car on East 27th Street. While they admit they were in a no-standing zone, their 6-month-old wasn't about to wait for them to get home, so Velez had run to his office nearby to heat up the breast milk. Allegedly he got caught up on a phone call, and Lily began nursing. Though their car wasn't blocking anyone, the officer gave them a $115 ticket for parking in a commercial no-meter zone, even though the no-standing restriction was only valid for another 20 minutes. The couple, as well as bystanders, explained the circumstances in hopes the officer would let it go, but to no avail. Velez told the site, “He didn’t care. We were not blocking anybody. It’s not like we had to move. There were not even cars.” Should the officer have turned a blind eye?

The DOT has been repainting many of the parking spaces on wide Queens streets so they're angled in the opposite direction of traffic, forcing drivers pull past them and back in. DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow tells the Daily News the new angles are being implemented because, "It's safer to back into an empty parking space than back out of one into oncoming traffic." But the change is apparently too disorienting for some Queens drivers, like Steve Goodman of Forest Hills, who tells 1010WINS, "They painted the lines in backwards. Why are they backwards like this? This is crazy!" And 61-year-old contractor David Graber complains, "I find it very confusing. The last time I was here, it was easy. You just pulled right in. They should've used someone less educated to make this decision." See, this mess wouldn't have happened if the State Senate was in charge of parking! Thankfully, the DOT is going to install large signs in Forest Hills instructing drivers how to back into the parking spots—in the meantime, it's chaos!

Queens resident Jimmy Hedin is feeling a different kind of sticker shock this week after a defective vehicle registration decal landed him two $65 parking tickets. As 1010 WINS reports, Hedin parks his car in Rego Park most of the week, "so a few days had passed before he realized he had been issued two tickets for the same offense—failure to properly display a current registration sticker." Hedin appears to have received one of 2.5 million registration stickers backed with defective glue. The adhesive loses its grip and causes the stickers to peel off—a flaw the DMV has acknowledged by offering to replace defective decals for free—so Hedin challenged the tickets in court. A judge dismissed the first ticket on account of the defect, but refused to dismiss the second ticket: "The claim that the sticker became unglued does not present a valid defense." Apparently, even some traffic tickets have more adhesive power than those registration stickers.

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.