Time for some more parking problems in the Big Apple.
In an election-year gift, the de Blasio administration is issuing up to 50,000 more car placards to city education workers — rolling back reforms made by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and opening the floodgates for abuse.
City residents and neighborhood activists blasted the move, saying the boost will clog roads and reduce spots for residents.
“We are losing parking spaces on a daily basis,” griped Jim Clynes, chair of Community Board 8 on the Upper East Side.
“Why make it easier to bring a car into Manhattan? It seems counterintuitive to the mayor’s Vision Zero program.”
Facing reports of widespread permit misuse, the Bloomberg administration had slashed the number of placards for Department of Education staffers from 63,000 to 11,000 in 2008.
The new agreement, which will take effect on Thursday, is the result of a lawsuit won by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which argued that the permit cuts violated its labor contract.
The principals union said this week that the city decided to give permits to teachers as well as administrators.
“The city is issuing the permits as a result of a legal decision and negotiations between unions, the DOE and the city of New York,” it said in a post on its Web site. “CSA litigated and won the permits, but the city decided on its own to grant permits to teachers as well.”
Teachers, supervisors and other staff will now receive the permits even though it means there will be tens of thousands more placards than actual parking spots reserved for schools.
Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf called it a payoff to the unions.
“This is an election-year gift to interest groups. This is Tammany Hall-style politics with a progressive fiddle,” he said.
“De Blasio wants a coronation, not an election. You give out election-year gifts to choke off any challenger. You go to the unions.”
Paul Steely White, executive director at Transportation Alternatives, warned that streets will become “more chaotic and dangerous” since staffers will likely abuse the parking perk.
“People get entitled with what they think the placard will entitle them to,” he said. “There’s a wink-and-a-nod culture where placards are seen as a license to leave your car wherever you want. There are a very real repercussion for innocent New Yorkers.”
The DOE emphasized that despite the increase in placards “there will not be an increase in the number of parking spaces available at school sites.”
City Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan) said there are already too many placards.
“I’d rather spend our energies on improving mass transit so that people don’t have to drive to work,” he said.
De Blasio, despite expanding parking perks, encouraged commuters to take mass transit.
“We encourage all New Yorkers, including school-based staff, to take full advantage of public transportation options that are available,” said his spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner