Jan 4, 2008 7:43 pm US/Eastern
City Hall Puts Kibosh On Privileged Parking
Constant Pressure From Media, Public Leads To Change
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The days of illegal parking by New York City officials are about to end.
CBS
It's been a problem for years. City workers parking wherever they want without facing any repercussions.
But now, CBS 2 HD has learned that "privileged parking" is headed straight for the curb.
City Hall says the parking party's over. It's pulling back on those official permits you see in so many windshields and promises a crackdown on abusers who park with impunity.
You remember complaining about them don't you?
There will be a 20 percent cutback in these placards under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan and in addition the police will set up a special enforcement unit to keep track of them. In other words, there will be special traffic agents specifically assigned to ticket cars.
"I don't think anyone begrudges a police officer or an individual on city business who comes to work and needs this as part of their day-to-day business," said Janette Sadik-Khan of city.com, "but people become enraged when they see there is government abuse of privileges."
Government watchdogs say the city is finally responding appropriately to years of bad publicity.
"I think the media coverage helped a lot because it's embarrassing to see illegally parked cars in no standing zones and see city workers act as if they're not subject to the same set of rules the rest of us are," traffic advocate Gene Russianoff said.
But the placard crackdown is more than just a reaction to some embarrassing news stories. Insiders tell CBS 2 HD it's an integral part of the mayor's congestion pricing program for Manhattan. It's his way of saying the city will put its house in order before asking us to make additional sacrifices.
Right now there are roughly 70,000 legal parking placards issued in the city -- and many more counterfeits.
The city also plans new digital encoding to make the placards hard to copy.
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