As we reported last week, Maria Baez and a handful of other City Council members want to issue free parking permits to every public school teacher in New York City. As the system presently employs some 95,000 full-time teachers, in addition to 18,000 part-time teachers and paraprofessionals, Intro 894 would encourage hundreds of thousands of car trips per year just as the city is making efforts to reduce driving by government employees by reining in parking placard issues.
The bill got its first hearing from Community Board 12 in Washington Heights last night, where it was overwhelmingly rejected by the board's transportation committee.
"Most members of the committee did not want to bring even more cars into the neighborhood," Chair Mark Levine told Streetsblog.
If the Baez bill isn't going over in car-friendly Upper Manhattan, that may not bode well for its success elsewhere. But given that Alan Gerson, who presides over one of the most congested districts of the city, has signed on as an early co-sponsor, we'd be foolish to write it off.
