Tight Lipped City Officials Won’t Say where Parking Spaces Will Be Cut.

As many of us have realized the Bloomberg’s administration “re-engineering of the city’s street grid” is costing us parking spaces, not to mention adding to the very traffic congestion he was once so determined to alleviate with a drivers tax. Apparently he means to break those too many Manhattan drivers the old fashioned way, by just saying no. But the most alarming thing I have heard about these traffic redesigns came in a New York Times article this summer.
This article recounts statistics that show that the deadliest pedestrian accidents occur when male drivers turn left (and our favorite passenger said we weren’t listening!). The article also talks about the Bloomberg administration’s series of traffic pattern changes (barring vehicles from major avenues, the bike lanes, etc,). Then the article mentions a planned series of changes in line with these latest statistics and we are told:
"Dozens of parking spaces will be removed next year from a major Manhattan avenue — officials would not say which one…”
Representatives of the Bloomberg administration, our elected city government, already has plans for substantial changes on a major Manhattan avenue, but would not say which one. Excuse me? Does that feel as creepy to you as it does to me?
Our administration is playing secrets with public policy. Traffic strategies affect local residents and businesses and directly impact those businesses’ economic value. We have a right to know. Since when is our American standard of open government subject to the whims of a few people who won a local election? Do we have a democratically elected Mayor or a Czar? Even Dad will let us know what kind of cake he is baking before it’s finished. Maybe that third term really does pervert all Mayors’ sense of entitlement. But no, I can’t imagine Ed Koch using such an intrigue, looking askance, like a jilted Doris Day, and refusing to say where he plans to make changes that will affect traffic and parking on a major Manhattan avenue.
If this administration truly fears open debate, prepared community review, and needs to ambush local communities with its special agenda, then maybe it’s because it’s not such a good agenda. Please feel free to click on the Contact the Mayor link to the right and let Mayor Bloomberg know you are old enough to know what he plans to do in your neighborhood before he actually does it.

Car Bomb Thwarted by Tow

          By now everyone has heard about the alleged attempted car bomb in Times Square. No matter how often you see it, it is always a sad and sobering sight when yet another car is hauled away in this city, but this time I was a lot sadder and a lot happier that a car was being towed. This time the city's always alert, always vigilant, vast mechanized army of tow trucks actually seems heroic and has finally found a car deserving of a tow and a parking violation worth fighting. As the image below of our Parking Map clearly indicates, that SUV was illegally parked(!) and they are just dumb out of luck. The NYPD has their car and my guess is will have their man soon enough.
          Now it's the terrorists' turn to suffer. Their vehicle is in the possession of the NYPD and anyone who has been caught in that tractor beam knows what that is like. Let them try to get it back. If the original terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is a fair measure of their stupidity, the NYPD will just have to wait for the wannabe terrorist to claim his or her vehicle. It's either that or else suffer the insult of seeing his or her SUV go to auction, be forced to see his/her SUV purchased for a fraction of what he/she paid for it (but still contribute to the city's finances), maybe one day even have to witness it being driven around by a happy all American family of 3.
          Fortunately, this truly scary terrorist attempt is beginning to look like a pretty amateur operation. It didn't go off. The SUV started smoking before the fireworks and even I know that is just bad manners. The whole thing was expertly defused, the surrounding area efficiently secured and evacuated. And you have to hand it to all the city employees who participated in making this a non event. You know the memory of those brave firemen who went back into the World Trade Tower was on all their minds at least for a moment, but they carried out their emergency measures to the letter and we are all feeling a lot safer thanks to them.
          I know some of you are wondering if Mayor Bloomberg was in Bermuda when all of this went down (see previous post). My guess is that NY Times article inspired that pointed, awkward reference, in his early morning speech, to having been in Washington DC earlier. That would explain the Tux. Looks like he's off the hook on that one which is more than I can say for that SUV.

Alternate Side Suspended for Earth Day Movement! (Should be!)

          Now hear this!

          I am sending the following email to Mayor Bloomberg and I ask everyone who is reading this, everyone who has ever read this Blog and all those people who think they may have heard about it somewhere, and their friends, to do it too. Email Mayor Bloomberg with the following pledge @ Contact the Mayor

Mr. Mayor,

Please show your unconditional support for the most enlightened of all holidays, EARTH DAY, by suspending Alternate Side Parking rules on this April 22. EARTH DAY is a day for the planet, a Day for our future, a Day for our children (the littlest voters). Suspending Alt Side this Thur will enable the majority of street parking New Yorkers to park their car on the Tuesday/Friday side and not have to move it again until the following Sunday (counting Wed and Sat as OFF Days). By suspending just one day of Alternate Side Parking, you can bequeath to New Yorkers 5 blessed days of less air pollution, 5 days of less traffic, 5 less days of fuel consumption, and 5 days of less noise. What better way to celebrate the life and preservation of this remarkable planet where we make our home

As my part in this EARTH DAY celebration, I pledge to you and my fellow New Yorkers not to use my car or truck unless absolutely necessary. For these 5 days to not start it or drive it; to leave it as idle and as quiet and as green as it can be.

Let’s show the world New Yorkers know how to say Thank You!

Sincerely,


The Fine Print
          I know some cynics among you are saying I only care about suspending Alt Side, but that is not completely true. Just about everyone I know who drives wants to go more green, but, if you do have a car or need a car, there are not too many choices. You could buy a hybrid car, but a new car in this economy (?) and how many people actually know how to fix these things? Also in my defense, I can happily point out that our apartment electricity comes through the Con Ed wind power program (available for a 10% higher bill) and thus uses a more natural source of power. Other than moving for street sweeping, I only drive my car around the city 15 or 20 times all year and take subways and taxis most of the other times. A good parking map helps me decide when it makes sense to drive. I would say ride a bike more, but I can’t afford the liability. Have you seen the statistics for bike/car accidents in this city?
          Let’s look at mine. I have one friend who was struck and left on the curbside unconscious. Eventually he was taken to hospital where he barely survived in a coma for 5 days and has no recollection of who or what hit him. My wife’s doctor was killed by a tow truck while he was on the West Side Highway bike path. She called to make an appointment one day. I pedaled into a taxi door when the fare decided to jump out at the light. Lucky for me I was thrown into a parked car which actually held my bike up, but the bruising on the left side of my body was enough cause one coworker to get sick. Cars often zoom past cutting so close to me I am shaken by the wind. Vans and trucks blow past me as if I was also behind a 2 ton steel reinforced hull rather than mere flesh and brittle bone. (But the city will write you a ticket for biking in the wrong direction in Central Park!)
          My latest is the cab that whacked me on the elbow with its side mirror. The cabbie, hearing the loud crack, decided that the best response was to pull over which he did… into me. The grinding noise he heard as his cab refused to turn in was my bike against a parked car. My handlebars were scraping both cars and were the only thing keeping me from being crushed. I was not liking my chances. Fortunately, he did pull away and stop to see if I was OK and then asked me to straighten his mirror since he couldn't reach it. This is not the appropriate forum to describe my response.
          Most of us do our parts, and as more choices become possible will do even more, but this week is an opportunity for all of us to do a small, but very symbolic, part.
          So be a friend to the planet this EARTH DAY and Email, Twitter, go down the hall and tell your friends who drive. Tell everyone who might think this is a good idea, everyone who just has a little free time on their hands, and everyone who wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves to Contact the Mayor.
          As Arlo Guthrie said it once: imagine hundreds or even thousands of people emailing the Mayor to suspend Alternate Side Parking for EARTH DAY. He’ll think it’s a movement and no elected official with the uncanny sense of survival of Mayor Bloomberg could ignore that.