Of the daily annoyances that make the Bronx a peril for drivers is parking. In every case, there’s barely enough to go around. Roiling civilian drivers more is city employees who skirt the rules by placing a city-issued placard on their dashboard, indicating to a traffic agent they are on official business.
It’s promulgated a culture of opportunity for drivers who may use the placard to park with impunity, and creating resentment against traffic agents. It’s further promulgated by a culture of tolerance from traffic agents who create a double standard by issuing a ticket to a violator but look the other way for a placard-carrying car.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is now putting city employees who use decals on notice: abuse them or face the consequences. It will be even worse for cars carrying phony decals.
The Mayor made the announcement as part of his weeklong visit to the Bronx, telling reporters that the more than 148,000 placards issued to city employees, mainly teachers with the Department of Education and NYPD officers, must be used properly.
@EricFPhillips @NYPDONeill @DOINews @OIGNYPD @MMViverito Lots of #placardcorruption in The Bronx today @EricFPhillips.
Saw no action by @NYCMayor…https://t.co/dhoxsHhDtGhttps://t.co/c3YXuCPKJK pic.twitter.com/Kc3Cuv5V7r
— placard corruption (@placardabuse) May 23, 2017
Enforcement
Enforcement includes the creation of a so-called Placard Fraud Enforcement Unit that falls under the NYPD, the hiring of 100 more traffic agents who will solely monitor placard abuse, increased fines, and pending technology that will scan license plates to determine whether any placards are being abused. Violators could be subject to disciplinary action or even having their car towed, according to Chief Thomas Chan of the NYPD Transportation Bureau.
“[A]nyone who thinks, in any agency, that they will be able to get away with the abuse of their placard will quickly see that the new enforcement capacity is not like anything they’ve seen in the past,” de Blasio said.
Placards are issued to city employees to park in designated areas, mainly their place of employment, be it school of police precinct. The practice was to identify themselves to traffic enforcement agents and to avoid the hassle of finding parking. For years, it was commonplace for traffic agents to turn a blind eye to cars who carry placard cars that park their cars in illegal spots or even hydrants.
“When someone who’s a public employee parks in front of a fire hydrant, they’re putting lives in danger,” de Blasio said.
The lack of enforcement has inspired Twitter accounts such as @PlacardCorruption to begin chronicling instances where traffic agents ignore ticketing a placard-carrying vehicle despite an obvious infraction. The Mayor added that he and city agencies would continue monitoring those sites, and welcome folks catching traffic agents overlooking infractions.
“We’re going to invite the public to help us in this enforcement effort by putting any information either online or calling it into 3-1-1, and our enforcement personnel will be looking for those public reports, we welcome those public reports,” de Blasio said.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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I see this daily on Webb Avenue & Father Zeiser Place directly outside of the Fordham Hill Co-Ops. These placards are placed on vehicles, one or two with out of state license plates. They park in front of the fire hydrant and handicap access onto the side walks and cross walks. There needs to be a crackdown, god forbid there is a fire and the hydrants are needed.
Creating yet another bueaucratic layer will increase rather than reduce opportunities for shirking responsibility for performing a difficult job. Each police officer, each traffic agent is tasked to enforce the law. Each official must report and summons all violators’ vehicles: especially to report improper and fraudulent usage! Mayoral response indicates his true intention: to create the impression of rectitude while giving rein to expected courtesies in the non-enforcement of parking rules!