Four years after Michael Bloomberg launched New York City’s sustainability agenda with congestion pricing as the marquee item, transportation reform is no longer the centerpiece of PlaNYC.

The first in what should be a series of regular four-year updates of the plan was released this morning, and it includes 132 initiatives. While those encompass significant transportation improvements like bike-sharing, faster buses, and the extremely important addition of parking reform to the city’s green agenda, top billing today went to other initiatives.

Headlining the mayor’s speech today were plans to eliminate dirty home heating oil, provide financing for energy efficiency improvements, and install solar panels on top of landfills — projects that while eminently worthy, reflect a shift in the administration’s emphasis.

“Unlike every other city in the country where 80 percent of pollution comes from transportation and 20 percent from buildings, in New York City it’s exactly reversed,” explained Bloomberg. On transportation, the PlaNYC update goes for a slew of incremental changes rather than any new signature program, although it does give the city’s previously announced commitment to bike-share some more momentum.

During his speech, the mayor praised Select Bus Service, saying that “it gets some cars off the road and some pollutants out of the air,” though he didn’t mention any new plans to expand it. In discussing the steady progress on the 7 train extension, Bloomberg called MTA chief Jay Walder “a godsend to our city” for his management of the transit system. Finally, Bloomberg touted the impressive reductions in traffic deaths over the last decade. He did not mention any new transportation initiatives.

Bloomberg also had no choice but to address what he called the elephant in the room: congestion pricing. “The problems of not enough mass transit and too much congestion on our roads, too many pollutants spewed out by combustion engines still persist,” he said. “I don’t think we should look back and say why it didn’t get done,” he continued, saying he was still willing to work with the state to find answers to those problems.

The PlaNYC update discusses the need to find a stable source of revenue for the MTA and fund the agency’s capital program, but offers only a promise to work with the state toward finding a solution.

Beyond those few mentions, however, transportation didn’t really make it into Bloomberg’s speech.

In the update itself, the biggest transportation-related addition is the inclusion of parking policy, which was all but left out of the original plan. Unlike congestion pricing, major parking policy reforms can be implemented by the city without needing a vote in Albany. While the update hints at the potential reforms, the new PlaNYC still contain few firm or ambitious commitments to use parking policy to tame traffic.

In terms of on-street parking, it promises to expand the congestion-cutting Park Smart program from Greenwich Village, Park Slope and the Upper East Side to three more neighborhoods. (NYC DOT has publicly had the goal of rolling out Park Smart pilots in six neighborhood for some time now, however.)

Reforming off-street parking is mentioned twice, though in neither case with any kind of firm commitment. The city will complete two studies of parking requirements, one in the Manhattan Core and one in the rest of the city, to shape future decisions on parking policy.

It is a breakthrough, albeit a limited one, that PlaNYC now states that “requiring too much parking to be built in a dense city like New York can encourage driving, contribute to congestion, and unnecessarily raise the cost of new development.” Up until now, the Department of City Planning’s position has been that parking requirements do not significantly affect car-ownership rates, much less congestion.

Parking requirements were also mentioned in the specific context of affordable housing, where forcing parking into new buildings increases housing prices and decreases supply. PlaNYC now commits to determining whether parking minimums add unnecessary costs to affordable housing development (they do), though it appears the study will be limited only to more densely populated neighborhoods with lower car-ownership rates.

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[more at: http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/04/21/planyc-2-0-hints-at-parking-reform-touts-bike-share-lacks-transpo-focus/]

Truck parked for hours on school sidewalk, permit is only to allow not to pay meters.

Sonya Simmons is determined to keep selling fresh produce at a Harlem farmer's market - but it hasn't been easy.

Twice a week, Simmons sleeps in her car waiting for a legal parking spot for the farmer's market she hosts on W. 145th St. near Edgecombe Ave.

"We just don't have anywhere to park," said Simmons, who started the market six years ago in an area she described as a "food desert."

"I'm usually double-parked until I can get something," said Simmons, who's gotten a stack of parking tickets for her trouble. "I'm forced to sleep there until I can get a spot."

Simmons is one of many local fruit and vegetable vendors getting squeezed by confusing city red tape, high permitting fees and parking problems, according to a report issued this month by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

"At a time when the city faces a food and health crisis...we simply can't afford to put obstacles in the way of markets that bring healthy food to New Yorkers," said Stringer. "We should be encouraging the growth of these markets, not obstructing them."

Market operators like Simmons can expect to pay up to $1,600 in annual fees to the city - "just for the right to sell a freshly grown head of lettuce to New Yorkers who need it the most," the report found.

Stringer's office also found parking problems for vendors, with some getting ticketed even when spots had been set aside for them because "the Department of Transportation has no official operating procedure for requesting signage or issuing placards to reserve parking on market days," the report found.

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[more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/uptown/2011/04/21/2011-04-21_theyre_in_a_parking_pickle_harlem_farmers_cant_find_spots__get_ticketed.html]

Tansit Bureau Dist 32... ..again. I think I should just set up a webcam.

Previous abuses:
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16301
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16205
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16179
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16012

FDNY is apparently jealous of the NYPD's illegal use of this space, as they are starting to encroach.

The placard says the user of the vehicle is an "active firefighter" on "official UFA business." Apparently that "official" business was overnight, as I first saw the vehicle parked there late the previous evening.

Other recorded instances - same cop.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16301
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16205
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16179
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16012

This location is very commonly used by NYPD placard abusers.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman lives - or at least parks her car - above the law.

Goodman views the annoying rules of vehicular placement that apply to others as just that: annoying rules that apply to lesser people who do not claim ownership of a special dashboard placard reading POLICE.

And so, on Thursday and Friday morning last week, Goodman's black four-door Audi A4 Quattro sat at expired meters on the west side of Broadway near W. 89th St., just around the corner from her apartment.

Ticket agents passed the car by while slapping summonses everywhere else they found violations.

"We don't give tickets to the police," said one agent. "I don't want to get into trouble."

Only Goodman is not police. She's a judge who fails to understand that free parking is not a perk that comes with sitting on the bench.

Goodman has a state-issued placard. These have been in the news of late because Gov. Cuomo slightly reduced the number that his agencies control and shifted many of the holders from "Police" cards to "Official Business" cards.

Goodman came by her placard differently. It turns out that the Office of Court Administration also issues parking passes, a gigantic total of almost 1,800 of them. Who has them all is unclear, as is the question of why they have been issued.

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[more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/04/18/2011-04-18_the_scofflaw_judge.html]

At this point, it’s hardly news that the length of the Henry Street bike lane was filled with parked cars yesterday (see here and here). Being a Sunday, it was par for the course, though still infuriating, that churchgoers were taking advantage of an informal agreement with the police to snatch that lane away from cyclists and give it to parkers during services. Can it get more outrageous than the status quo? Yes it can.

Ink Lake blogger Peter Kaufman snapped a few pics that nicely capture the multiple layers of exemptions and perks that NYC’s entitled motoring class employs at the curbside. A white SUV was parked in the bike lane. On the side and rear windows was printed “City of New York Parks & Recreation, Construction Division, Official Use Only.” On the front dashboard sat a homemade placard: “Attending Liturgy: Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral.”

From the driver’s perspective, this was probably a sensible belt-and-suspenders approach. If the police officer wouldn’t give the driver a pass for being a fellow city employee, being at church should put him over the top.

From the perspective of common sense and the law, of course, the doubled-up exemption shows just how absurd the system has become. The city had better hope that its employees aren’t attending mass as official business, or this could pretty quickly turn into a matter for the ACLU and not just transportation advocates. And whether it’s waiving the rules for city employees or worshippers, the NYPD doesn’t have the authority to change the rules for groups it favors and put cyclists’ safety at risk in the process.

[more at: http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/04/18/henry-st-placard-abuser-fends-off-nypd-by-mixing-church-and-state/]

It doesn't look like getting rid of the Deputy Inspector troubles by multiple scandals did anything to improve the integrity of the dishonest cops in the Dirty Five-Two.

Why is it so hard to find a few honest cops in New York City? Other cities actually have law enforcement officers that enforce the law instead of breaking it all day every day in public!

[moderator's note: this NYPD Restricted permit has two license plate numbers written in, which is also a no-no]

Dear readers,

There is no area of New York City harder hit with parking placard abuse and counterfeit placards than Lower Manhattan. Truckers are forced to double park and end up ticketed and towed. Residents can’t get parking spaces. People are forced to walk through parked cars in safety zones (No standing areas set aside to increase visibility). Even hydrants are often blocked! Our streets are congested BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT LAXITY on this issue.

That’s why I welcome New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for reducing parking placard abuse. First, only police will get “POLICE” placards. This is a great first step. Secondly, others will be assigned special “Official Business” placards with identification numbers tied to the license plate along with the agency a placard holder works for. I commend the Governor for doing this. I hope the city follows suits with “POLICE” placards for cops only.

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[more at: http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_416/transitsam.html]

Previous dishonorable mentions:

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16205
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16179
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/16012

The governor taketh away and the governor giveth - and he should have stoppethed when he was ahead.

Even as the Daily News caught a bozo from the Waterfront Commission (there really is such a thing) using a state-issued police parking placard to improperly glom a space, Gov. Cuomo's inspector general was probing such abuses.

She found that 2,120 officials - or spouses, significant others and kids - had leave-your-car-where-you-want dashboard passes. Of those, 1,730 were "police" placards and the remainder were for "official business."

Cuomo is calling them all in. Bravo! He's cutting the number of "police" cards down to 261. Bravo! But he's planning to churn out 1,732 "official business" passes so almost no one loses his or her parking privileges.

Every member of the Assembly and Senate will get a new pass. Of course they will. The governor wouldn't dare antagonize them. Heck, he wouldn't even dare release their names.

With straight faces, the governor's people contended that, gee, no one knows who has had these passes. But, under tighter rules, holders will have to certify to using the card only on duty. And each card will bear the license plate of a specific vehicle.

So now there's going to be a list. For which we submit to the governor our Freedom of Information Law request:

Dear Sir,

Please provide us the names of all officials, excluding law enforcement personnel whose lives could be jeopardized, to whom you grant parking privileges unknown to regular New Yorkers.

Thanks, and all the best.

[more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/04/11/2011-04-11_no_perking_gov.html]

A grand jury probe of an alleged Bronx ticket-fixing scheme focuses on as many as 40 cops, including delegates from the city's largest police union, sources told the Daily News.

More than two dozen cops are being eyed for making summonses disappear in exchange for gifts - a felony - sources said.

At least 10 others are being investigated for lesser crimes, including obstructing governmental administration. These cops are suspected of losing tickets that they had "taken care of," the source said.

"Guys are being asked what do they know about cops getting gifts or asking for gifts," according to one source.

"They're talking about indictments for larceny. They're talking about indictments for bribery. ... It's not going to be pretty."

At least one high-ranking cop has been called to testify.

A sergeant and other cops who are not delegates of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association are also under investigation, the sources said.

Officials from the NYPD, the PBA and the Bronx district attorney's office declined comment, but it appears prosecutors are turning up the heat.

[more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/04/09/2011-04-09_up_to_40_bronx_cops_eyed_in_grand_jury_ticketfix_probe__bribery_larceny_charges_.html]

Is the use and abuse of parking placards negatively affecting the safety, quality of life or business in your neighborhood? Let us know!

A press conference on reforming parking placards is in the works, and we'd love to you have stand with us. We're looking for individuals, neighborhood associations and business groups.

Please contact Mo Kinberg at mo.kinberg@transalt.org.

Thank you!

Best,
Transportation Alternatives

When New York State Inspector General Ellen Biben announced yesterday that the state’s police parking placard policy was so slipshod it “invited abuse,” she immediately followed with two numbers meant to convey an air of stern reform. She said the number of police placards had been cut from 1,730 to 261–an 84 percent reduction. But that doesn’t mean the total number of placards has been cut by that much.

Many users have been shifted to “official business” placards, which are more restrictive than police placards, which say “this vehicle is on official police business.” The “official business” placards allow users to park in commercial zones, spots near some government offices and, let’s be honest, where they can get away with it. But in total, there are still nearly 2000 placards in circulation, a ten percent reduction from previous years.

The state has 3,500 placards at its disposal, according to the Office of Court Administration, which has in the past overseen production of the placards for reasons lost to history. Biben said the executive branch had previously issued 2,210 of them. After the inspector general’s review of users, there are now a total of 1,993 placards in circulation. Officials say that number is necessary because state employees, such as food inspectors, need the placards to drive to multiple locations to do their jobs.

Giving out a mere 217 more placards would get the state back to its pre-crackdown number, though most of them would be “official business” rather than police placards.

Advocates like Transportation Alternatives have called for big reductions in the use of parking placards, because they say, easy parking encourages people to drive more — at a time when governors and mayors are encouraging people to use transit, bike, walk, or carpool to relieve congestion and reduce carbon emissions. After a brouhaha a couple of years ago about the loose distribution of placards to New York City employees, Mayor Bloomberg said he’d reduce the number from 140,000 to something less than half of that.

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[more at: http://transportationnation.org/2011/04/08/ny-state-parking-placard-reform-a-closer-look/]

For years, the city and state have vowed to crackdown on parking placard abuse by lawmakers, police, and other state officials. But despite their best efforts, officials keep getting caught misusing the parking permits, adding to a sense of imbalance between haves and have-nots. But after a new state probe earlier this week which condemned the widespread misuse, the Cuomo administration announced yesterday that new limits will be placed on the placards, and nearly 1,500 state officials will lose theirs. "They may have to circle the block [like everyone else]," said Howard Glaser, Cuomo's state operations director.

From now on, the only state employees eligible for the "official police business" placards are members of the state police. “What we found was a seriously flawed system. It was a system that included the issuance of more than 1,700 State Police placards for politicians and others who were clearly not police officers. It was a system that had no clear guidelines governing the appropriate uses of the placards, which made enforcement of the abuses nearly impossible. Quite simply, it was a system that invited abuse,” said Ellen N. Biben, the state inspector general who launched the probe at Gov. Cuomo's request.

[more at: http://gothamist.com/2011/04/08/albany_moves_to_crackdown_on_parkin.php]

In response to some high-profile abuses of state-issued parking placards and a report by the state’s Inspector General, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that he will be reforming the way placards are issued and releasing ten percent fewer total placards. The new state placard regime will be only modestly more strict than before, but creates a framework for regulating what have become coveted perks and magnets for petty corruption.

Currently, there are 2,210 state-issued parking placards, 1,730 of which are ostensibly police placards. Under Cuomo’s plan, the total will drop to 1,993 placards and most will be converted to “official business” placards. For comparison, New York City issues tens of thousands of official placards.

The list of state officials caught abusing their placard privileges could fill a book, but the issue grabbed the spotlight when the Times reported that State Senator Carl Kruger, now indicted for corruption, had managed to swing police placards for his housemates Michael and Gerard Turano. In October, Brooklyn Assembly Member Vito Lopez’s car was photographed with no fewer than three separate placards on the dashboard.

Cuomo’s plan also sets into place a formal application process for receiving a placard, something that did not previously exist, according to the governor’s office. Applicants will need to explain why they need a placard and which vehicle they’ll be using it with, and they’ll have to sign a statement accepting the proper use of placards. Those applications will then be reviewed by both the applicant’s agency and by either the State Police or Governor’s Office of Public Safety.

That application process will allow the redesigned placards to display the license plate number of the car it belongs to, theoretically making it more difficult to share the placards or use them on personal vehicles after hours.

Lots of questions linger about the state’s placard program, and neither the Inspector General nor the governor’s office have replied to our inquiries. For example, are “official business” placards meaningfully different from police placards to the person handing out traffic tickets? And does Cuomo have any plan to address symbols like an MTA vest in the windshield that aren’t technically placards but send the same message?

The proof will be in the pudding: the number of days before another state legislator gets caught abusing his placard.

[more at: http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/04/08/cuomo-to-cut-10-percent-of-state-parking-placards/]

Cuomo administration officials announced on Thursday that they would sharply reduce the number of police parking placards handed out each year in an effort to crack down on abuses by state officials.

The new policy would strip state lawmakers, commissioners and other nonpolice personnel of state parking placards bearing the words “Police Vehicle Identification,” hundreds of which had been handed out annually with little oversight, according to the state inspector general, and in some cases abused by the bearer.

The total number of police placards handed out would be cut from 1,730 last year to 261 this year. In the future, the officials said, the State Police would handle distribution of police placards, which will be assigned only to members of that agency and other state employees with statutory police powers, like investigators with the office of the attorney general or police officers working under the department of environmental conservation.

“What we found was a seriously flawed system,” said Ellen N. Biben, the state inspector general, at a news conference in Manhattan. “It was a system that included the issuance of more than 1,700 State Police placards for politicians and others who were clearly not police officers. It was a system that had no clear guidelines governing the appropriate uses of the placards, which made enforcement of the abuses nearly impossible. Quite simply, it was a system that invited abuse.”

For years, the state’s homeland security office has handed out blocks of police placards on request to the State Senate, the State Assembly and numerous state agencies, which in turn handed them out to individual lawmakers and state employees.

Ms. Biben, joined by Joseph D’Amico, the State Police superintendent, and Howard Glaser, the director of state operations for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, said a review by her office had found that no clear policy or standards were applied to the distribution of police or other official placards. The state had also failed to establish clear guidelines to guide the placards’ use, the review found.

The result: Hundreds of such placards went into circulation — and nobody knew who had them. (Existing cards, like the new ones, are good for one year and marked with an expiration date.)

The administration’s new policy follows a similar effort by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who in 2008 set out to tame New York City’s tangled system of official, semiofficial and flat-out fraudulent parking placards, tens of thousands of which were in circulation at the time among police officers, teachers and other city employees.

[more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/nyregion/08placards.html]