A Brooklyn city councilman wants to take away the parking permit privileges of tens of thousands of government workers — and is re-introducing dormant legislation to allow citizen enforcement of illegal “placard abuse.”
The new proposal from Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) would yank every placard not explicitly required by collective bargaining. The move would revoke tens of thousands of the permits, which ostensibly exist to give municipal employees better access to curbside real estate when they’re on the job but are often misused, abused or illegally fabricated.
“It’s petty corruption, and it has to stop,” Restler said on Thursday. “There’s just no reason that city, state and federal workers should have government-issued placards that let them park their personal vehicles wherever they choose.”
The new bill would revoke approximately 60,000 permits, according to Restler’s estimates, while exempting clergy and people with disabilities as well as workers whose permits are collectively bargained.
City teachers got 50,000 new placards as an election-year gift from Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017, after the principals’ union won a lawsuit against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to cut the Department of Education down from 63,000 to 11,000 placards.
There are some 150,000 or so government-issued placards on city streets, but no official accounting exists.
Restler’s other bill — initially proposed by ex-Councilman Stephen Levin — would pay New Yorkers for reporting drivers, including cops, who park illegally.
Under the proposal, citizens would report illegal parking in certain bike lanes, bus lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks — and in turn, they’d get a 25% cut of the fine if the scofflaw is found guilty.
Restler — who said placard misuse “makes our streets unsafe” — does not know if any other workers besides school employees have the permits guaranteed by contract, but insisted his bill would tackle the source of the problem.
“These are all the placards that are just given out willy-nilly to any city, state or federal employee who might want one,” he said.
“I think this is going to target where the abuse is happening. I have never gotten any complaints about schools with placard abuse.”