It’s enough to drive this pol mad.
Scores of illegally-parked vehicles – mostly driven by city workers and contractors – in downtown Brooklyn are brazenly flouting the law, prompting “dangerous” road conditions for passersby, a new bombshell report revealed.
A survey released Monday by City Councilman Lincoln Restler’s office found an average of 457 illegally-parked cars daily across 60 blocks of downtown Brooklyn, between May 26 and June 20, using government placards, phony placards or signs like NYPD vests – with only 3% ticketed.
Dozens of vehicles in no-standing zones, bus stops and painted buffer zones sported placards from the sheriff’s office, district attorney’s office, New York State Court Officers’ Association and US Postal Service as well as marked and unmarked NYPD squad cars, a Post reporter observed Monday afternoon.
One white Jeep with Florida plates was parked halfway on the curb amid busy rush-hour traffic along Brooklyn Bridge Boulevard. Another worker with New Jersey plates shrugged and pointed to her court officers’ placard, when confronted by the reporter about illegally parking her vehicle.
“Illegal parking has taken over every block of Downtown Brooklyn,” Restler said, noting the vehicles also block sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes and loading zones.
“There is negligible enforcement against illegal parking,” he added, “and it’s time that we take action to abolish government placards and improve street designs to make Downtown Brooklyn safer for all.”
An NYPD spokesperson refuted Restler’s claims, noting the department has “aggressively” addressed illegal parking in the precinct, with 113,429 parking summonses, including 821 placard summonses, 2,018 vehicles towed and 511 vehicles booted this year to date.
The NYPD also recently installed “Tow Away Zone” signage at Tillary and Navy streets underneath the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to curb illegal parking, according to the spokesperson.
Restler, however, called the continued brouhaha polluting Brooklyn streets “inexcusable.”
“We need real enforcement,” he told The Post. “We need to hold city workers, state workers, court workers accountable for parking illegally all across the neighborhood.”
Illegal parking was centered around government buildings, the survey identified – with an average of 63 illegally parked vehicles found daily outside the Kings County Courthouse on Adams Street from Joralemon to Johnson streets.
More than 60% of those parked outside the courthouse had official placards, despite a 36-vehicle private parking lot and an additional 180 on-street spots for court workers.
Elsewhere, blocks surrounding the 84th Precinct, FDNY Engine 207 station house and NYPD Transit Special Victims Unit on Gold Street had an average of 102 illegally parked cars each day, according to the survey.
“It’s to the point where it’s common: Everybody knows that the government guys [are] going to take up all the spots, but … they don’t have the right to,” quipped motorist Victor Newberry, 65, who himself was illegally parked outside a Johnson Street post office.
“I just think that they need to be responsible like we got to be responsible, and if not then they have to get a ticket,” he added.
“It is quite unfair, because I feel they’re supposed to have a place for the government to be parked,” said Prince John, 58, a security worker and Uber delivery driver from Brooklyn, who was illegally idling in a state judiciary parking zone after circling the block near the post office for several minutes.
Restler is currently pushing legislation in City Council to revoke 60,000 city-issued parking placards.
The pol has also renewed calls for the installation of street safety redesigns that curb sidewalk- and bike-lane parking, as well as “allowing for citizen and automated parking enforcement.”
Melissia, a lawyer who declined to give her last name, said she just wants city workers follow the law.
“[It] gobbles up more of my time than I’d like to spend circling around,” lamented the 42-year-old mom, who is often stuck taking the J train from downtown Brooklyn due to the absence of available parking.
“I would like to see our city officials following the laws that they put in place.”
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