Residents rant about privileged parkers

By Tommy Hallissey

Few quality-of-life issues can draw the ire of New Yorkers quite like the scarcity of parking. There's something about taking lap after lap around a city block that gets the blood boiling.

Yet some Riverdale and Kingsbridge residents never have to worry about finding a parking spot - and it's got their neighbors hopping mad.

In recent months, several residents have called in and written to The Press to complain that off-duty police officers were abusing their parking privileges by leaving their cars in no-standing zones or in illegal spots. They evade a ticket by placing their police placards in the windshield.

One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, complained of two cars parked day and night in a no-standing zone on Van Cortlandt Park South, near Bailey Avenue. The cars, the resident said, are causing a dangerous situation.

"The problem is children crossing Bailey Avenue. Their sight looking north is obstructed and city buses are making the turn coming down the hill, coming close to these parked cars in order to pull over to their bus stop on Bailey Avenue," the resident wrote.

Another anonymous man wrote in to report an illegally parked car on West 256th Street and Arlington Avenue, and provided pictures of the offending automobile. A NYPD placard is clearly displayed.

"They set lousy examples as municipal abusers who believe they may disregard the law," the man wrote.

A source at the 50th Precinct said the police placards are only valid for parking a car near the precinct stationhouse. The residents who wrote to The Press indicated the locally offending officers were from other commands and parking in residential neighborhoods.

Police are not the only organizations entitled to parking placards in New York City.

In fact, a recent account of City Hall-issued parking placards found that 142,000 city workers were issued one, much more than the city had originally thought.

According to a story in The New York Times, 500 of those placards were issued to employees in the mayor's office, including to several former mayors, while 120,000 are used by police, teachers and other city workers who need to park near their jobs. Some 22,000 others are used in city vehicles, allowing workers to park in any illegal spot or at a meter throughout the city.

Elected officials as well as community board heads are also issued placards.

Tony Cassino, chairman of Community Board 8, turned his down.

"I have a real problem with placards," he said. "I think the public gets rightfully incensed when they see someone parked with a placard and not in an emergency situation."

Mr. Cassino said the board office routinely gets phone calls from residents about parking abuse, but said he didn't think it was appropriate for the community board to take a stance on this issue because the permits are issued by City Hall.

City Councilman Oliver Koppell said he has no qualms about using his parking placard when he's on official business. "I think that a public official should have some ability to easily go throughout the district," he said.

But it is rarely the city councilman or assemblyman drawing the complaints. Mr. Cassino said most of the complaints he receives are about off-duty police officers and firefighters, who, believe it or not, are parking in front of fire hydrants. Mr. Cassino said the abuse cannot be justified.

"A police officer who works a long day and gets home at midnight is the same as a person working another job and gets home at midnight and has to park their car," he said.

This is part of the March 27, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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