Absolute placard congests absolutely.
Downtown Brooklyn continues to be plagued by illegally parked cars — most with real or fake city-issued placards — and virtually none ever gets ticketed by cops.
According to a new report by Council Member Lincoln Restler, on an average summer weekday, there are 457 illegally parked cars along key corridors in Downtown Brooklyn — 57 percent of which had legit or fake parking placards (or city gear, aka "theft vests," on the dashboard).
"While many see illegal parking as harmless ... drivers who choose to illegally park create dangerous conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers," the report states.
The report bolsters Restler's longtime quest to eliminate tens of thousands of placards, which function as "free parking" passes for government elite. Indeed, the blocks with the highest concentration of illegal parking were the ones with the most government buildings, which is not a coincidence.
The report also suggests that Downtown Brooklyn is the consequence-free environment that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch believes only applies to cyclists: Of the 457 illegally parked cars, 41 percent did not have a placard, yet almost entirely not ticketed.
"Only 3 percent of observed illegally parked cars [placarded or non-placarded] had been issued a ticket, so 97 percent of illegal vehicles faced no fine or accountability," the report states. "The majority of offenders are government workers or contractors."
The Restler report focused only on a few corridors in Downtown Brooklyn, and found rampant placard abuse and unsafe illegal parking in two main areas:
- Near the courthouses on Adams Street: On an average day, there are 63 vehicles parked illegally and more than 60 percent have an official placard. On parallel Jay Street between Willoughby and Johnson streets, 73 percent of the illegally parked cars have a real or fake placard.
- Tillary Street: The area between Prince and Navy streets is home to the NYPD's 84th Precinct station house, an NYPD special victim's unit and an FDNY engine and ladder company. Across those three blocks, there is an average of 36 cars parked illegally every day. An overwhelming majority (79 percent) of the illegally parked cars between Gold and Navy streets — the uniformed epicenter — are placard perps.
Of course, counting the illegally parked cars of elites is only one part of Restler's mission here. In addition to the stats, the Council member offered a slate of recommendations, some new, some old.
For starters, he's renewing his call to phase out 60,000 city-issued placards and to pass his bill to allow the public to report illegal parking (and receive a small bounty). Beyond that, he wants more consistent enforcement of placard abuse by the NYPD (which has abrogated its responsibility, as Streetsblog has reported), and better street design by the Department of Transportation so that it's much harder to park illegally.
The flagrant illegal and placard parking in Downtown Brooklyn has been a bête noir of Streetsblog since its very first post in 2006. Since then, Streetsblog has covered how placard elites choked a downtown after, have ruined bus service, how periodic crackdowns do nothing, how then-Mayor Bill de Blasio failed to rein in the terror, how Mayor Adams did not care, how the commander of the 84th Precinct himself was a flagrant placard abuser, and, of course, how many of the placard class aren't content with merely getting free parking, but also cover or deface their plates to avoid tickets and tolls.
And you know what the cops call that ("criminal mischief," of course).
The DOT did not respond to a request for comment. But a spokesperson for the NYPD, who did not provide a name, sent over a statement that the "NYPD aggressively addressed illegal parking conditions in the 84th Precinct," whose past-tense lede suggested that the problem has been solved.
According to the NYPD, cops issued 113,429 parking summonses, including 821 placard summonses, towed 2,018 vehicles and booted 511 vehicles in the entire 84th Precinct so far this year (the entire precinct is much larger than the area in Restler's survey).
"The 84th Precinct continues to address illegal parking daily and the Transportation Bureau supplements any additional enforcement and resources as needed," the statement concluded.
Restler wasn't buying it.
"We see rampant, illegal parking on every block of Downtown Brooklyn because there is no accountability," he told Streetsblog. "We need aggressive enforcement by the NYPD, legislation to empower citizen enforcement and revoke parking placards, and smarter, safer street designs that prevent illegal parking."
