Parks Department has notified all holders of "East Drive" placards that they are invalid as of August 15, but this person doesn't care since her permit has been invalid for the prior 18 months.

Recently Parks & Recreation Department told all holders of "East Drive" P&RD placards that their placards were invalid as of August 15, 2007, and that they would need to reapply for a new permit based on need. Apparently some, like this guy, did not get the message, probably because they are not using a valid permit in the first place. Permit expired in 2006 and is good for a Chrysler, not this Mercedes (didn't know operating a carousel could pay so well!).

This van with an expired permit for the Union Square Greenmarket and a blank, undated permit for the battery park Greenmarket was parked w/in 15 feet of this hydrant in front of a school, in a no parking 7-4 pm zone at 9 am. Apparently this guy lives in the neighborhood b/c he's racked up $270 in tickets within a block of this location.

[Admin note: we absolutely do not condone provoking confrontations of this sort. This is a great way to be injured, arrested or worse. At the same time, the response by the illegal parkers described is unacceptable and shows that the use of this illegal parking has become institutionalized.]

Sometime ago a few of us who deplore the sidewalk parkers of the Conservatory Gardens took it upon ourselves to do something about it. What we did was decided to block the only crosswalk cut out being used to enter the sidewalk with our own personal cars. It would intail myself or a friend parking there in the a.m and refusing to move for any car that wanted to park on the sidewalk. On the first day we were ordered by a park ranger to move but he had no jurisdiction to move us. I implored him to call the real police and he just walked away. By the end of day one, we had won and denied them access to the sidewalk but on day two it was a loss for us. What the employees of the Parks and Recreation did was park a suburban truck in the crosswalk and left it there all day. I watched as when one of their own wanted access to the sidewalk they would go get the owner of the car from 1 E 104 street and move it. They were using this car as a gate.
To bad for them I was there to catch their illegal activities.(see above foto) These dastardly employees of the park will do anything to park on the sidewalk. Who the hell do they think they are?

We need some sort of intervention by the city Govt before matters reach an extreme boiling point at this spot.

Blocking the crosswalk and the sidewalk surely is an infraction in this city? Isn't it?

The Parks & Recreation Department has a program I call "Central Perks" in which they give out citywide passes to retired administrators allowing them to park their private vehicles in the middle of New Yorkers' precious parkland (http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/648). Here, we see that the program extends to employees of non-public entities (in this case, Historic housing Trust, or HHT) that provide services under contract to the City. This person's citywide permit expired 2 months ago.

In fairness to her, the office of the HHT is located in the Arsenal, right next to where the car is parked, the placard holder is still employed as HHT Exec director, she apparently just didn't get around to getting a new permit.

But if an ordinary civilian forgets to feed the meter, they get ticketed in an instant, and there's no way to talk your way out of it. Not so if you work for the city or a city contractor. Then you get a free pass like this one that many abuse to park anywhere in the city they please for free--in the park, blocking the hydrant, in the crosswalks, in the bus stops, on the sidewalk, etc.

DP&R seems to think that there is no cost to giving out these placards, but the fact is each car they allow into the Park degrades it. In fact, if they give out enough of these "citywide" placards, they essentially have turned our parks into a network of free parking lots for bureaucrats. How many of these passes are out there, exactly? Has DP&R considered alternatives to these free passes, such as reimbursing the cost of contractor employees like this parking at a nearby private lot, or creating a permit parking area on 5th Avenue & 64th Street?

DP&R's disregard for the impact of all their permit printing on ordinary New Yorkers is what makes them uncivil servants.

Here's the second vehicle of the retired DP&R Deputy Commissioner, for which the city has issued a second "citywide" placard, so the holder can park BOTH of his Connecticut-plated vehicles smack in the middle of Central Park. This is the Lexus; the Mazda SUV is here:
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/647

Both of these cars are parked on the bridle path in Central Park all the time, for weeks at a stretch, since at least November 2006.

How can DP&R fail to see the cost--in terms of the use and enjoyment of the parks--in handing out free passes to ex-employees to park their personal vehicles in the parks, year after year?

I am intrigued by the mindset of individuals such as this placard holder who have devoted many years of service to parks, and then go and ruin them by parking their cars in them. I did a little research and here's what I found:

This placard holder and his former boss (the retired Commissioner of DP&R) run an organization called "NY Civic"
(http://nycivic.org/staff.html). According to the website: "Part watchdog, part cheerleader, part fundraiser, part whistle-blower, part trusted advisor, part muckraker, part think tank, part consciousness-raiser, New York Civic takes an active role in outlining and defining public and civic life in its myriad forms."

"Muckraker" NY Civic recently held a public forum entitled: "NYC Parks and Cars: Can They Coexist?" (http://www.nycivic.org/events.html). The forum was ostensibly neutral and balanced, including a representative of T.A. (well-known for its opposition to cars in Central park).

It is questionable to me that this placardholder would posture as a "think tank" or "muckraker" in sponsoring a forum addressing the seemingly open-ended question of whether parks and cars can coexist, when he is parking his personal cars in the middle of the park everyday.

It is apparent that the "cheerleader" aspect of NY Civic is in ascendance when it comes to the questions of cars in the parks. Here's what NY Civic ultimately had to say about T.A.'s car-free parks advocacy:

"We agree with the majority of Transportation Alternatives' initiatives, and believe the group is of significant value to New York. But on this issue [of cars on the Central Park loop] we dissent from the politically correct. So far, the anti-car ideologues have not accepted any kind of compromise on cars in the park. Their hatred of the automobile, as a symbol of the machine age, as a consumer of gasoline and oil, as a legacy of Robert Moses, as a dangerous, noisome, odiferous, and obnoxious juggernaut, is unrequited by the city's efforts to reduce traffic and preserve residential neighborhoods at the same time."

See the full article here: http://www.nycivic.org/articles/060606.html

The hypocrisy of these these ex-bureaucrats cum "muckrakers" is also apparent in other opinion pieces posted on their site. Elected legislators are vilified as corrupt, rank-and-file public employees are chastized as greedy, and ex-Comptroller Hevesi is protrayed with sympathy:

"Lawmakers, Lawbreakers" (http://www.nycivic.org/articles/060828.html): "The cliché about the Legislature being a den of thieves looks all too true these days."

"Work for NYC; Retire in Your 40's"
(http://www.nycivic.org/articles/060823.html): "The sordid situation of the state's craven elected officials in both parties catering to politically powerful public employee unions and unilaterally imposing hundreds of millions of dollars of pension obligations on city taxpayers is contemptible."

"Hevesi, Hounded, Haunted, Abandoned by Associates, Struggles for Survival":
(http://www.nycivic.org/articles/061031.html): "[Hevesi] is no ordinary public figure, but a person of unusual gifts. Sadly, he has some not so unusual flaws, and more sins may come to light as the result of vigorous investigation."

I think this placard holder and his cronies could better spend their time mucking out their own stalls, rather than beating their breasts over the alleged corruption of others. I wonder . . . If a retired DEPUTY Commissioner gets two year-round citywide placards in perpetuity for his personal vehicles as a perk of retirement, together worth about $20,000 a year at market rates, then what does a retired PARKS COMMISSIONER get?

Central Park Conservancy and the City have formed an historic partnership, devoted to "rescuing the Park from decay and restoring it to the original vision of its designers." To meet the challenge, CPC and Department of Parks & Recreation have launched an ambitious program: "Central Perks." It's goal: to make the perk of free parking for personal vehicles available to the city's thousands of current and retired civil servants.

Here is an example of what surely must be the "gold standard" in the Central Perks Program--a "citywide" pass apparently allowing the holder to park in any park--or, in practice anywhere at all--without fear of a ticket or the cost/nuisance of feeding the meter.

What's even more remarkable is that the DP&R has given this pass to a RETIRED former Deputy Commissioner of DP&R. There is not even the pretense that the placard holder is actually performing services for the city and has exigent parking needs; this is "pure perk." In some industries, retiring employees are rewarded for their years of service with a pension, or a gold watch. If you retire from the DP&R, you get the right to degrade the parks and park anywhere you like with impunity throughout New York City.

This placard holder is the "King of Central Perks." He parks his Connecticut-plated SUV on Central Park's bridle path, just steps away from the Upper East Side where he'd have to pay at least $700 a month plus ~20% tax to park his car west of Third Avenue. I have observed this car parked on the bridle path constantly, often weeks at a time, since last November. So this perk is worth about $10,000/per year. Of course, he's got not just one but two of these placards, so make that $20,000 per year, year after year: http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/648). How much was at issue in that Hevesi scandal again?

When this photo was taken on Nov. 26, 2006, the southern portion of the bridle path didn't have any signage on it allowing "authorized vehicles." It was no more legal to park here with this placard than it was in Sheep Meadow. Nothing like a little off-road action in Central Park, eh?

I wonder this guy's auto insurer knows how much time he's spending in NYC instead of Connecticut?

This guy got a permit good for parking in Central Park for one day, February 23, 2007, but is continuing to use it a week later on Park Drive East.