Has Time Run Out on the Parking Placard “Crackdown”?


Chinatown, December 2007: As good as it gets?

Early this year, Mayor Bloomberg’s office announced across-the-board reductions in the number of government-issued parking placards that could be allotted to city employees. And while the city looks to be following through with the cuts — to the chagrin of some among the entitled motoring class — WNYC reports that Lower Manhattan is still flooded with illegally parked vehicles.

Despite new standardized placard designs and a highly publicized sweep against scofflaws in April, a recent tour of Chinatown by reporter Matthew Schuerman and Transportation Alternatives’ Wiley Norvell found scores of cars sporting slapdash pseudo-permits, and very few of them bearing tickets. Norvell says that enforcement is still lax, but a spokesperson from the mayor’s office told Schuerman that NYPD is doing a "very good job."

Did the Bloomberg "crackdown" on free parking for government employees expire with congestion pricing? 

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Mandatory parking minimums raise construction costs, restrict the supply of housing, and help put rents out of reach. Photo: Google Street View

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