Mayor Bloomberg praised the Daily News yesterday for revealing illegal parking by government workers, pledging to redouble efforts to curb the abuse even as new cases were uncovered.
Yesterday, The News found 18 cars parked on the sidewalk near the Police Department's traffic control division on 30th Place between 47th and 48th Aves. in Long Island City, Queens.
None of the cars was ticketed. One car, which had a NYPD placard marked for "traffic control," was parked on the sidewalk, blocking a driveway to a parking lot.
"The very people that give us [parking] tickets are parking illegally themselves," said a city employee who spoke to The News on condition of anonymity.
On Manhattan's upper East Side, there were three black Ford Tauruses with N.Y.C. agency business permits illegally double parked on East End Ave. at 80th St. The placards all were marked "CUNY."
The News previously found state court employees illegally parking on a Chinatown street and double parking near the Bronx courthouse.
Bloomberg said yesterday he believes the majority of the parking placards being abused are issued to state and federal employees. Since he became mayor, Bloomberg said, he has cut the number of parking placards "dramatically."
"Could we do more? Yes. Perhaps I should go back and take another look at it," he said. "It's one of these things that when you take your eye off the ball for a few minutes, the next day people start going right back to their old habits."
Declaring "everybody should be treated the same," Bloomberg said he has strongly urged federal and state governments to crack down on employees who are abusing their placards. And the mayor's aides have said City Hall is doing the same for city employees.
Matthew Roth, an official with Transportation Alternatives, said he's concerned that Bloomberg is "evading the central issue" by focusing on the agency that's issuing the placards.
"Regardless of who's abusing their permits, his police department should be ticketing and towing them," Roth said. "How can some be above the law and others not?"
Bloomberg, though, is clearly aligning himself with New Yorkers who are sick and tired of government workers abusing their privileges.
"In this case, [the Daily News] is doing a great service and pointing out abuses of the system that should not be allowed to happen," Bloomberg said.
