A tale of two curb bills

  

NY Post

City Council members Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a slew of measures designed to reduce traffic chaos caused by trucks delivering goods purchased online.

One of the moves aims to siphon off dedicated curb space for the likes of Amazon and UPS.

The legislation requires the city Department of Transportation to institute loading-only parking spots in each neighborhood and develop “micro-distribution centers.” The distribution centers would serve to transfer parcels from large trucks to smaller transit vehicles such as cargo e-bikes.

The DOT will have to install five dedicated loading zones per neighborhood per year for a total of 1,500 over three years, according to the legislation.

“We have to recognize the dynamics of our streets and how things have changed, especially when it comes to how people receive their goods — which is mostly through packages and so forth,” said Council Member Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn), the bill’s sponsor.

A few days later...

Comptroller wannabe Brad Lander has a entitled need for speed

 

NY Post

He’s a high-speed hypocrite!

City Councilman Brad Lander — who’s crusaded against reckless drivers and pushed a law that lets the city seize their cars — has been caught speeding in school zones around the Big Apple eight times in the past five years, The Post has learned.

Lander’s lead foot led to tickets against him for going more than 10 mph over the speed limit in every borough except Staten Island since June 2016, city records show.

The liberal Democrat — who’s now a candidate for city comptroller — even racked up two violations in one week last month, one in Manhattan and another just blocks from his home in Brooklyn’s Park Slope.

In each case, Lander pleaded guilty and paid a $50 fine, according to information posted on the NYC Open Data website. But because the tickets were issued after Lander zoomed past automatic speed cameras, he wasn’t assessed any points against his license.

Under state law, speeding more than 10 mph over the limit carries at least four points per violation and drivers can have their licenses suspended if they rack up a total of 11 points in 18 months.

Lander was ticketed seven times between Oct. 25, 2019, and March 25, 2021, which is a period of less than 18 months, and would have resulted in at least 28 points if he’d been stopped by cops and convicted each time.

Meanwhile, The Post on Thursday found Lander’s Toyota Prius parked illegally on 13th Street in Park Slope, near his home, between 9 and 9:30 a.m, when street-sweeping regulations were in effect.

At one point, a Department of Sanitation street cleaning vehicle came by and was blocked from sweeping the curb.

Lander’s dark gray hybrid remained parked until he got in and drove away shortly before noon, even though there’s a two-hour meter limit on the block from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

 Update:

Watch this bum squirm when he tries to simultaneously defend and absolve himself from his own reckless driving record. But what's really hysterical is how these fauxgressive council cronies are willing to eat each other to maintain the one-party establishment.

NYPD blocks sidewalk egress with personal and patrol vehicles

 

Impunity City 

 The 106th Precinct in Ozone Park, Queens is egregiously obstructing commuting public space on both sides of the street with police vehicles and their cars, notably on top of a handicap cut curb ramp. by a public park named after a cop who died in the line of duty. The cop the park was memorialized for, Officer Nicholas Demutiis, got killed trying to stop a car thief that ran him over on that same block. 

This falls in line with what the NYPD has been doing at their other precincts as they turn the areas around their taxpayer funded buildings into makeshift fortresses, especially with all the frequent protests that has occurred in the last five months along with a majority of citizens calling for defunding and abolishing of the police and the budget cuts that followed in July. A recent incident that got some viral attention involved a reporter from bike advocate news site Streetsblog who got stopped, questioned and also threatened for arrest when she exposed the NYPD using a playground as parking lot for their vehicles (with permission by the NYC Parks dept).

 But the 106th truly stands out for their brazen territoriality of public space. And to show that their annexing of sidewalks isn’t a new thing, this precinct has been parking vehicles on this sidewalk and the one across the street for quite a while now. 

Update: 

Now it's clear why auto body shops and car dealers have been getting away with curbstoning all these years.

 

Auto body shops and used car dealers are annexing sidewalk space

  

Queens Chronicle

Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Corona) helped crack down on “curbstoning” when he was in the Assembly five years ago, with tougher penalties for unlicensed car dealing.

But curbstoning, when a dealer poses as a private seller to sell a car parked on the street, is still common in Corona.

“In some of these streets the residents were saying it was like a used car lot on a public street,” said Capt. Jonathan Cermeli, commanding officer of the 110th Precinct.

Moya wants it seen as a top priority.

“I’m always disappointed when I see that the quality-of-life issues that happen in my community don’t happen in more of the affluent areas,” he said, adding that the precinct has been extremely responsive.

Parking spots are being taken up on residential blocks by auto body shops, mechanic shops and secondhand used car dealers.

“We noticed a spike in vehicles being put in parking spots all over residential neighborhoods in Corona with ‘for sale’ signs on them,” Cermeli said Monday.

The commander said it’s hard to determine if the business owner or employees are usually responsible for curbstoning. He believes a lot of people trying to sell their vehicles now may have been in an accident or don’t have the money to maintain it.

The owner of an auto body shop on 47th Avenue was given a ticket in late October, according to Moya’s office. Reached Wednesday by the Queens Chronicle, someone who picked up the phone after the owner was requested said he had not gotten a ticket and that the boss was not there, before hanging up.

To sell more than five vehicles per year in New York, a dealer’s license is needed.

“Most of these folks don’t have that,” Moya said.

Keep on obstructin' again; Runway Towing returns and dumps damaged trailers on Conduit Blvd.

 Runway towing at in again in south ozone park. Back in January channel 2 news did a story on this problem about this towing company storing there damaged trailer on south conduit from 124th street to 126th streets.

  




































 About 5 months went by before this tow company started there nonsense again. DOT even put up no standing anytime signs and two new fire hydrants were put at 125th street and yet they still continue to conduct illegal parking problems here.
 

  




































 They also still have no regard for people’s safety putting these trailers on the corner of this busy intersection. you can not see oncoming traffic on south conduit ave.

 The local police pct which is the 106 will not say anything to them because they help them out with tow operations.

  




































So this is a ongoing fight that will never end until unfortunately a bad accident happens. 

So sad.

 

Big rigs hogging Grand Central Parkway service road space is another persistent problem the city avoids

CBS NY

  Trucks are taking over another Queens neighborhood.

CBS2 found around two dozen parked Sunday night in Forest Hills, some idling for hours.
Residents said they are begging the city to help. Reporter Lisa Rozner first reported on the problem two years ago. On Sunday, she went back to speak with residents who said the situation has only gotten worse.

Truck fumes filled the air, but she wasn’t at a truck stop.

It was actually the Grand Central service road spanning several blocks starting at 64th Road. For the last three years, Rafy Yusupov and his neighbors say it’s what they come home to every night — and it’s especially bad on weekends when trucks are left for days.

“Always noise, always smell, traffic,” Yusupov said.

Here's an idea. Since the MTA did a transit ad campaign with Comedy Central and Forest hills resident and Golden Globe winner and viral rap star Awkwafina having her doing station announcements, have the NYPD make the same integrated advertising/public service arrangement with the network and have her order the removal of these pig parking big rigs.

Catch Awkwafina is Nora from Queens premiering on Comedy Central on January 22nd.

 

Jamaica residents say that Detective Costa instructions are causing more conflict

In a May 16th. e-mail Detective Costa instructed residents to contact the authorities to remove illegally placed cones. 

Excerpts of his e-mail is as follows, "We have been receiving many complaints regarding cones being placed on streets to reserve parking spaces in front of people’s houses. We understand that parking is difficult in NYC but this is illegal. 

To make a complaint, please follow the link below.

 Street/Sidewalk Obstruction Complaint

Report an illegally placed box, barrel, bale of merchandise, or other movable property placed by a business or residence on a street or sidewalk."

However, residents have been telling me; that Detective Costa is instructing them, to remove the cones or objective themselves. 

They said this a direct contradiction to his e-mail instructions. Furthermore, they contend that removing cones from in front of  residents' homes will cause conflict and more anamosity. 

I called Detective Costa last week. I told him that I was calling regarding his e-mail. In addition, I told him that the abundance of cones is causing a grave inconvenience.  

I could not believe his statement. He instructed me to remove the cones myself. Then I told him that residents complained; that he had given them the same instructions.

Detective Costa debated that there is no difference who removes the cones. I told him that I believe he is well aware of the underlying conflict. He pretended not to be aware; so I informed him that people will get annoyed. They will scrape your vehicle or removing people's cones could escalate into violence.

Detective Costa appeared unmoved. Nevertheless, I informed him that at the next opportunity I will inform the police commissioner that our community is neglected.

As I canvas my community, most residents say that in general, quality of life issues are neglected. This is true not only for the police department, but the sanitation department, and the department of transportation as well. Hence, the reason our community is filled with garbage and abandoned vehicles. 

 I hope residents will attend the next opportunity to talk to the police commissioner and other decision makers. 

In the meantime, Detective Costa and his colleagues have the AUTHORITY to remove the widespread cones. The cones are visible all over our neighbourhood. 

P. Hazel: Social Media Journalist for Justice.

This detective is actually encouraging people to take the law into their own hands and do his job for him. This is a brazen display of laziness and cowardice on his part. Inconceivable.

de Blasio announces leniency towards bike lane parking violators

NY Post


Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday the city won’t be going after vehicles clogging bike lanes because it doesn’t have adequate “resources” for such a crackdown.

“We don’t have the resources to do that right now in the way I think … the bicycle community would like to see, but we do believe that anybody who is parked in the bike lane, of course, is going to be summonsed and there will be consequences,” de Blasio said during his weekly appearance on WNYC radio.

“So these are just different priorities that we need to work with every single day.”

Host Brian Lehrer pointed out that callers to the show regularly question why the city is concerned about clogged bus lanes, but not bike lanes, where “someone can get killed or seriously injured by having to swerve into traffic.”

De Blasio responded that bus lanes are a higher priority because “of the sheer number” who use them, meaning the 2.5 million daily passengers.

His comments came a day after de Blasio announced that seven NYPD tow teams would be dedicated exclusively to clearing bus thoroughfares.

Of course this would not be complete without another incriminating display of his brazen sense of entitlement and defiant hypocrisy, for he's also a recidivist scofflaw concerning this pervasive issue.