. @mancb10 Transpo Committee spent about an hour discussing the location of a @CitiBikeNYC dock at 147th and Adam Clayton

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1470283729823781&id=100005265048405

cc @StreetsblogNYC

So I went to see the location today It looks fine to me. Esplanade rep was arguing that the bikes are too close to the scaffolding, or would be, later on, when more work is done. So why don’t they put the bikes on the street and replace those 3 parking spots?

Here’s a more complete view so @NYC_DOT rep @StaInesJennifer can see that this is a nothing burger and they should take the parking spaces because #streetparkingistheft

Meanwhile, a block away at the M10 bus stop that has been blocked by @placardabuse dating back over 15 years and was just featured in this @StreetsblogNYC story, some excitement was unfolding...
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/08/12/business-as-usual-mayor-nypd-promised-to-evict-cops-from-harlem-bus-stop-but-nothing-has-changed/

I had read about this perpetually kicked bus stop and needed to see it for myself. I discovered Officer Sauceda (very friendly) taking down license plates who told me the cars would be ticketed.

I said I had heard these are all police cars that were illegally parking. But he corrected me and pointed to their license plates which were almost entirely out of state. He was right. They were not officers’ cars

I said OK, but what about all of the other cars that were illegally perpendicularly parked. Surely these two blocks of “parking lot” style cars would be ticketed as well? He said no, those are all legal parking spots.

I said, OK but when all of these other cars are parking in this manner, it looks like these are also parking spots, pointing to the ones in front of the bus stop. And therefore that’s why people are going to park here. There’s nothing that says otherwise.

As I was saying that, the owner of one of the illegally parked cars with CT plates came by to get his car and narrowly avoided a ticket (as I said, friendly officer!). I asked him why he parked there. he gestured to the other cars and said he thought it was a parking spot.

I spoke with some of these other residents who were sitting and watching and told me that this has been going on for as long as they can remember. That people with wheelchairs can’t access the bus stop and it’s just terrible.

In closing, this is a perfect example of how dysfunctional New York City can be. Here is a bust stop. But the entire area has been overrun with parked cars and turned into the personal parking lot of the police precinct.

The police think this is perfectly legal and legit and cannot even fathom how this kind of parking could be illegal, let alone be misleading to any other drivers who wander into the neighborhood looking for a spot.

DOT and MTA is complicit because there’s virtually no signaling that says this whole thing is wrong. The bus stop could have a bulb out for example. Paint on the curb.

The residents suffer with this crap for years and years. Nothing changes. And now, some drivers who don’t really know better (not like me to take the side of an illegally parked driver, but it really isn’t obvious) will get a ticket.

They will move their cars and probably not park in that spot again. New drivers will come in and park in the same spot and maybe will get ticketed but probably won’t because this is kind of a one time sting operation.

By the way you know that all of the officers for that precinct got an alert that cars would be ticketed and they all moved their cars, which left a space wide open for new drivers to presume the spots were available.

This cycle of dysfunction will continue on and on until a Mayor comes along who can wrangle the police, and when the police can see that parking their cars all over the community is not OK.

But I think it points to the bigger picture. If the city can’t get its act together for a single bus stop to be accessible for people in wheelchairs, how can we have faith that the city will figure out efficient, ambitious solutions to endlessly more complex problems?

I mean.. there are these 3 cars parked IN the intersection. Seriously??

Finally, on my ride home I stopped by good ol’ @NYPD28Pct which obviously does the exact same thing. Parking all over the sidewalk, on the bike lanes.

It’s all quite easy to track on street view

Oh and 117th st open streets barricades have not been set up since May. So thanks for that team. /END