Parking Placards

StreetFilms' Sean Clifford discovers that one of New York City government employees' favorite illegal parking spots in Downtown Brooklyn happens to be the last vestige of a historic road that played a significant role in the Revolutionary War. Alas, did George Washington's brave regiment of Marylanders sacrifice their lives at Gowanus so that government employees could park all over the sidewalk on Red Hook Lane?

Over at the site UncivilServants.org, the Transportation Alternatives project where readers can post photos of illegally parked cars sporting government-issued parking permits (like the court officers above who are comfortably ensconced in a no-parking zone on Crosby Street), there's a hot thread on whether showing the plate numbers of the vehicles constitutes a potentially dangerous invasion of privacy for police officers and others who are caught in violation. What do Streetsblog readers think?

A Chinatown tipster sent along these remarkable pictures yesterday of what seems to be an effort to cut down on placarded vehicles clogging the neighborhood's streets:

Word has it that the city is finally cracking down on uncivil servants' illegal parking privileges. Was this the final outrage that finally spurred the Bloomberg Administration to take action?

A chart illustrating the number who commute by auto to the Central Business District from Bruce Schaller's study for the Manhattan Institute, Battling Traffic: What New Yorkers Think About Road Pricing.

Breakfasting NYPD traffic enforcement agents doubleparked at 97th St. and Amsterdam Ave. this morning

London officials closed the northern side of Trafalgar Square to traffic creating a vibrant new public space.

Transportation Alternatives has released a study of parking permit abuse among New York City employees (as observed in nine neighborhoods). Their press release notes the study's key findings: