In a sweeping crackdown against an infuriating government abuse, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that he’s cutting the number of official parking placards by 20 percent and creating a special NYPD unit to ensure compliance.
Officials estimated that the city issues about 70,000 placards – meaning that 14,000 could be yanked.
“This is going to make a lot of city workers very unhappy,” one insider predicted.
The mayor’s announcement came five weeks after The Post disclosed that 149 separate government entities had qualified for the coveted placards last year, ranging from the state lottery to the US Navy recruiting office, which was allocated an astonishing 110 permits.
Bloomberg ordered every city agency to conduct an inventory of its permits and directed that no new ones be issued as of March 1, except by the Police Department and Department of Transportation.
So many different agencies produce and distribute their own placards now that officials said it’s hard to know precisely how many are in circulation.
“This is huge,” declared Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives, which has been campaigning for years to limit placards. “The 20 percent figure is substantial. This is really taking a whack at bad government and the culture of entitlement that developed around these permits.”
The crackdown doesn’t affect placards issued by federal or state agencies, but does include the Department of Education and the NYPD itself.
Even parking privileges for cops at local precincts are subject to the reduction.
Officials conceded privately that the placard parkers were overtaking some neighborhoods, especially in downtown Manhattan.
Norvell said when his group makes presentations to push the mayor’s congestion-pricing plan, “all you hear about is permits. Folks are really riled up about this issue.”
A commission assigned to produce a working congestion-pricing scheme is supposed to issue its report at the end of the month, putting further pressure on the city to rein in government parking perks.
It didn’t take long for a reporter to find illegally parked vehicles, made immune by their placards, only steps from City Hall.
Seven cars were parked in the “No Stopping Anytime” zone on Chambers Street off Park Row, a major exit from the Brooklyn Bridge.
Four cars had “NYPD Recruitment” placards in their windows, two others had “NYPD” placards, and the seventh claimed to be with “Homeless Services Police.”
Placards aren’t valid at that location, which is a block from Police Headquarters. But parking agents rarely give out summonses to vehicles displaying any type of placard, no matter how suspicious they might seem.
One irate citizen complained to The Post last week about a car parked in Midtown with a Department of Correction placard signed by “Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik.”
Kerik left that job in August 2000, more than seven years ago.
“Parking placards are a necessary tool for conducting city business, but we have no tolerance for their abuse, which contributes to congestion,” the mayor said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly promised that vehicles with counterfeit placards – another big problem – would be slapped with summonses “and their owners will be subject to further prosecution.”
A multi-agency task force led by Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler was assigned by the mayor to examine the use of “smart” placards, which could track individual usage, and to look at street spaces allocated to government agencies.