With the City Council looking at legislation to combat parking-placard abuse, Mayor de Blasio is now offering his own plan to make a big change . . . someday.
This, after his first crackdown in 2017 barely scratched the surface of the problem. And even as he refuses to take the one step that’s most urgent: slashing the number of city parking placards.
Yet much of the problem originates in City Hall, which has issued over 125,000 placards to elected and appointed officials, their staffers and first responders as well as other city employees.
And that doesn’t include still more placards issued by the state and the feds.
Most may be legit, but many are simply perks that provide people who don’t need special privileges with a free, convenient — and often illegal— parking spot.
Ironically, this increases Manhattan’s traffic congestion problem, as it encourages people who might otherwise use mass transit to drive.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg cut the number of placards in half. But they’ve skyrocketed under de Blasio, in part thanks to the decision to grant one to pretty much every Department of Education employee who asks.
Indeed, de Blasio claimed Thursday as he announced his plan that “you’re going to see a constant uptick” in the number of placards. Which is true, if you’re not willing to fight to reduce them.
Then, too, the mayor proposes to yank offenders’ placards only after the third violation, because “we’re dealing with human beings here.” It won’t even be retroactive.
His real fix won’t begin before 2021, when the plan aims to institute a digital system to automatically check license plates, making physical placards unnecessary. The city, he vows, will also lease parking lots and garages to provide more spots.
In short, this plan gives the council good reason to move ahead on its own fixes.
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