Today’s Headlines

  • Retired Police: Top Brass Ordered Ticket Fixing for Politicians, Churches, Synagogues (WNYC)
  • WWII Veteran, 87, Hit and Killed By Officer Driving NYPD Traffic Squad Car (News, Post)
  • Derailments and Delays Have Straphangers Worried About Return to MTA’s Bad Old Days (TransNat)
  • Man in Town For Friend’s Wake Struck and Killed By East Flatbush Driver (News)
  • Crain’s: Joe Lhota Must Convince Legislature, Cuomo to Fund Rest of Capital Program
  • Schumer Still Dodging Prospect Park West Questions (Bklyn Paper)
  • Parking Permit Best Practices: Charge Higher Meter Prices in RPP Neighborhoods (TransNat)
  • Daily News: Most City Streets “Work Just Fine” — No Need for RPP
  • Carroll Gardens Parents Want to Turn Street Into Playground on Snowy Days (Post)
  • Law Enforcement, Politicians Given Thousands of Free E-ZPasses (Post)
  • Still No Funding For Even Transit-Free Tappan Zee (LoHud)
  • Lew Fidler Explains His Bike Lane Bill, Parking Permit Opposition (Bklyn Politics)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Guagliardo said he and other officers would get rewarded with perks when they fixed tickets for their supervisors. Retired officers say it was common to receive orders from supervisors to fix tickets for people from the mayor’s office or city council members. Aurelio Grillo, a police officer in Williamsburg during the 1960s and 70s, said he saw powerful voting blocks in his precinct get special treatment.”

    I believe it.  A few lower level guys are getting railroaded for a common practice.  The political class does not want to admit the truth — this is a city of special deals for “special” people.

    I ask again, why was a bill suddenly passed, unanimously by the NYC Council which seldom votes on such things and overwhelmingly by the state legislature, to retroactively allow all police officers with more than 20 years in to keep their pensions when found guilty of misconduct?  This just happened, with no debate, no discussion, no one even knowing about. 

    And almost no one knows about it now.  A universal conspiracy of silence.  All there was was this article, a month after the bill was passed and signed, by an outside contributor to the Daily News.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nypd-benefits-control-crooked-cops-pensions-article-1.967546

    I guarantee you, it isn’t to protect the grunts.  And you’d better watch out for those White Shirts with more than 20 years in now.  They are free to be as corrupt as the average state legislator, now that their pensions are also guaranteed.

  • krstrois

    I would say a good 85% of people regularly parking in my neighborhood have Pennsylvania or North Carolina plates. I vote for anything that totally f*cks these people. 

  • Re: the WWII vet hit by a car and every other story of a person struck… “there was no indication of criminality.”Shouldn’t the fact that someone was killed immediately say criminality? Probably not with intention, but very likely with negligence. Don’t know what its gonna take for Ray Kelly to ever change his tune….

  • Larry Littlefield

    This article is funny — elite runners can run the route of the NYC Marathon faster than a NY Times reporter can drive it.

    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/worst-marathon-time-ever-but-age-is-not-to-blame/?partner=rss&emc=rss

  • Ian Turner

    The RPP proposal coming out of the city council will almost certainly make it even more difficult to drive in the city, and although there are probably better ways, this can still only be good for the rest of us. Let them choke on their own selfishness.

  • Driver

    ““If residential permits are issued, then I think all remaining spaces
    should be priced with sharp increases on game day to dissuade folks from
    driving (especially since terrible gridlock is in fact already
    forecasted and outlined in the environmental impact statement). If the
    on-street prices remain cheaper than parking in the arena garage,
    drivers will certainly put in the time to look for cheaper alternatives…”

    Won’t the current time limits already discourage parking in metered spaces?  Most commercial strips with meters are 1-2 hour limits.  All that would be needed would be to extend the hours the meters are in effect for to account for night games.