Thousands of people who work for governmental agencies park on New York City streets for free. The city needs to reform the rampant overuse of parking placards, which give their owners the power to park their personal vehicles in metered spots and “no parking” zones — leading to widespread crowding — without paying a single cent.
Mayor Mamdani’s recent creation of the Office of Curb Management within the Department of Transportation is a decent start, but the placard plague continues to afflict the entire city, and is especially disruptive below Chambers Street. That’s where 235,574 private-sector employees and tens of thousands of public-sector employees work, in addition to the 70,000 residents who call the neighborhood home. Encouraging such large numbers of workers to park here during peak hours, as placards do, only further congests our streets.
During a recent weekday Gridlock Alert Day, when DOT urged New Yorkers to walk, bike or use mass transit, the Alliance for Downtown New York conducted an internal survey that found 336 vehicles displaying parking placards in Lower Manhattan south of Chambers Street…