Police Finally Remove Cars From Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn

The NYPD is finally waging class war — on the placard class.

After years of back and forth, NYPD officials have blocked off an illegal parking lot used for years by scores of FDNY and NYPD employees in a congested area in Downtown Brooklyn.

Metal barriers at the plaza under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway at Tillary and Navy streets read, “As of June 18, parking is no longer allowed” — a restatement of the long-ignored fact that the parking was always illegal there. Every day, the plaza under the highway was filled with dozens of cars — often FDNY officials called into the Fire Department headquarters in the nearby Metrotech Center.

On Monday, only one car remained in the lot, albeit one that appears to be abandoned (indeed, it had a parking ticket on the windshield). It’s unclear how effective the effort will be; the barricades are sometimes far enough apart to allow drivers to squeeze in. Plus, many drivers still park illegally along the nearby BQE ramps.

Neither Council members Lincoln Restler nor Crystal Hudson, whose districts more or less converge in the area, took credit for the police action, but Restler recently led NYPD Transportation Chief Olufunmilola Obe on a walking tour of illegal parking and placard abuse hotspots in his district.

Possession of a city parking placard is a privilege. But as sociologists have long observed, when someone is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. That’s how city employee MD Uddin felt on Monday. Instead of parking in the illegal zone, he saw the barricades … and parked in another illegal zone.

He justified his actions by saying, “I have a permit. I work for the City of New York.”

It’s not the first time that the NYPD has acted in the face of so much illegal parking. In 2021, cops towed seven cars and ticketed 15 in a one-day blitz, but the placard perps were back in less than 24 hours, as Streetsblog reported.

Ever since, the sidewalks, plazas, exit ramps in the area have continued to be de-facto parking lots and, for one notable man, a hunting ground for defaced or covered license plates.

The NYPD didn’t comment for this story, but after it was published, a spokesperson who declined to provide a name sent over this statement:

“Following community complaints about illegal parking under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the NYPD Transportation Bureau and Council Member Lincoln Restler coordinated with the 84th Precinct to address the parking condition and clear the area. Officers issued 40 summonses and towed 10 vehicles from the location.”