Downtown Brooklyn

No Evidence of de Blasio’s Placard “Crackdown” on Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn

Placard-abusing government employees make the Adams Street bike lane an obstacle course, just as they did 15 years ago.

By Brad Aaron

2:00 PM EST on November 16, 2017

No Evidence of de Blasio’s Placard “Crackdown” on Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn

Responding to public backlash after he voluntarily reissued tens of thousands of parking placards to city school teachers, Mayor de Blasio promised back in May that NYPD would start taking placard abuse seriously.

Given that many placard abusers are cops and NYPD has resisted any attempt to reform the placard system, the public had no reason to take the mayor’s proclamation seriously. Six months later, placard abuse is still commonplace.

Downtown Brooklyn is a rats nest of illegal parking. In this Streetfilms Shortie, Clarence Eckerson compares the state of Adams Street today to the conditions in 2002. As you can see, employees who work in nearby government buildings in 2017 are as free to double-park in the bike lane as they were 15 years ago.

If de Blasio is cracking down on placard abuse, as he said he would, there’s no evidence of it here.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.