Friday’s Headlines: ‘Critical Parking’ for Cops Edition
City Hall refused Streetsblog’s request to attend ride along with Mayor Mamdani and his team on Thursday as they visited undeveloped city-owned properties in line for new housing. Fortunately, we had a transcript from City Hall to fill us in on what we missed: Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg subtly defending NYPD officers’ penchant for driving to work.
Bozorg defended the city’s plans to retain some form of parking for cops from the Ninth Precinct when it builds housing atop an East Village parking lot currently occupied by a mix of NYPD cars and cops’ personal cars.
“In the case of the NYPD parking lot, it’s underutilized from a housing perspective and a zoning perspective. It’s not underutilized from their perspective; it’s critical parking for them,” Bozorg said. “So, we work in partnership to figure out how we can do both.”
Parking spots drive up the cost of housing construction, but Bozorg insisted the city’s insistence on including them in the East Village project did not contradict the Mamdani administration’s opposition to minimum parking requirements for new developments.
“I’ll just note in terms of the mandates, there’s a big difference sometimes between mandating parking through something like zoning or your regulations and analyzing where parking is needed,” she said.
But are 25 of the building’s parking spots really “needed” for a precinct within walking distance of four subway lines, and is that worth the higher construction cost?
Apparently the Mamdani administration’s answer is yes. Outlets including amNY wrote up the accompanying announcement of a database of city-owned properties set for new housing construction.
In other news:
- A Tesla driver struck and killed a woman on what cops described as a two-wheeled scooter at Amsterdam and W. 60th Street. (West Side Rag, ILoveTheUpperWestSide)
- Construction on the Tremont Avenue busway begins next month. (Gothamist)
- A Williamsburg apartment building fell into disrepair and was demolished — and couldn’t get rebuilt today. (Daniel Trubman via Substack)
- The MTA is working on allowing riders to see their OMNY balances. (amNY)
- State Sen. Liz Krueger is back on the scene after suffering a stroke earlier this year. (City & State)
- The MTA is bringing snack and drink vending machines to subway stations. (NBC4)
- TWU is trying to blame “stray voltage” for the June 17 horse carriage fatality. (amNY, PIX11)
- Read all about Switzerland’s “iconic military bike.” (Swiss National Museum Blog)
- DOT will give a Knicks “Champions Way” street sign to the highest bidder. (NY Post)
- An artist declared her Q train a “quiet car” … to surprising results. (New York Groove)
- And finally, here’s a free idea for the NYPD:
