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July 9, 2011
Lots of Parking Coverage
PIX 11, Atlantic Yards Double Parking Double Standard
By Monica Morales
The new Barclays center currently under construction in downtown Brooklyn is attracting illegal parking and bogus parking placards, complain long-time residents on Dean St.
"It's a double standard. Construction workers are getting away with illegal parking. They just put their orange vest on the dashboard and they don't get a ticket," said Peter Krashes, the President of the Dean St. Block Association.
PIX11 News found signs warning the illegal parking would be punished, but no sign of any tickets being distributed. PIX11 news found a parking placard on Atlantic Avenue for a funeral director.
"I think that is hilarious. Too bad the guy didn't take off his union sticker, that he is a construction worker," laughed Krashes.
The N.Y.P.D. spokesperson has said in the past, "Individuals found violating the parking restrictions in the area maybe subject to disciplinary action."
Calls to the Empire State Development Corporation, the state agency that oversees the project, were not returned.
Fox, NY, Parking Violations Around Atlantic Yards Site
By Ti-Hua Chang
Parking signs by the Atlantic Yards arena construction site say "No Standing Anytime." But the cars parked there do not have tickets.
The special passes, a day-glow vest on the dash letting police know the car belongs to a construction worker, police union cards, made-up placards of iron worker, and even funeral director.
A local resident took pictures of what he says are construction worker cars tripled parked on "No Standing" streets, cars blocking fire hydrants, and cars blocking people on the sidewalk -- yet not a parking ticket in sight.
The activist group Transportation Alternatives says it found 83 cars parked illegally without tickets. The group argues police have selective enforcement.
Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, says cops don't ticket "their own" and other classes of people they have sympathy with, such as other union employees and construction workers.
The police department responded: "This is a false accusation from a special interest group."
But people in neighborhood say the illegal parking is out of control and no one wants to do anything about it.
The developer, Forest City Ratner, and New York's Empire State Development Corporation acknowledge an illegal parking problem exists around the construction but don't say what specifically they will do about it.
A spokesman for the developer said: "We have instructed contractors to tell their employees to obey all parking regulations. We've also spoken to NYPD about the issue."
The only tickets we did see were on cars parked by police spots by the police precinct one block away.
News 12, Atlantic Yards neighbors fuming over illegal parking
Residents who live near the Atlantic Yards construction site say they're fed up with cars parking illegally in the area.
They say construction workers blatantly ignore signs that forbid stopping, standing or parking along Dean Street. Parking rules, they say, are rarely enforced there.
Some cars in the area have police placards visible in their windshields. Local residents, however, point to a recent study by a transportation group that found many placards in the construction zone to be fraudulent.
Concerned neighbors have launched a website to document parking violations and other troubles they say the construction project is causing.
Posted by steve at July 9, 2011 5:50 PM