We made tremendous progress last week -- including the passage of four of my bills -- to make New York's streets work better for New Yorkers.
--On street closures and parking rules: The Council passed a bill I authored to require the City to publish an online interactive map to inform New Yorkers at least a week in advance if it plans to close the streets for any reason, including street fairs, film shoots or crane operations. Simply put, when the City is going to close the street, there's no reason why the people most affected -- residents, merchants and drivers -- should be the last to know. It also will allow for the public to access citywide parking regulations on the same map. You can read more about this bill here .
--On pedicabs: The Council passed three of my bills to close loopholes in the existing law and further reform the pedicab industry. These bills will make pedicabs subject to parking rules for the first time, make it easier for the City to remove unsafe and unlicensed pedicabs and drivers from the road, and cap the number of pedicabs at their current number, 850. We are at our saturation point with pedicabs, and the City needs to focus on enforcing existing rules and creating clearer and stronger ones. You can read more about this effort in the New York Post and Gotham Gazette .
*** These bills appear to have the support of Mayor Bloomberg, but a little extra encouragement from you wouldn't hurt. Ask the Mayor to sign these bills into law. ***
--On parking permits: I have fought against the abuse of City-issued parking placards for years, and last week received some critical support on my recent bill, the "Authentic Permit Act." This bill would put barcodes on City-issued placards in order to better identify legitimate ones and encourage enforcement against parking violators -- whether they have a permit or not. As a matter of safety, congestion and simple fairness, we should not have cars masquerading as official vehicles to park where they please. But according to a new study by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which supports the legislation, 1 in 4 permits in the areas they surveyed was fake, suggesting that the number of cars with fake permits may be equal in size to the city's yellow taxi fleet. I will be pushing for a hearing on the Authentic Permit Act, and hope you will support me in that. In the meantime, you can learn more about this issue in the New York Observer or from this WPIX 11 report .
If you see problems on your street that could be addressed by my office or through new legislation, please feel free to contact me at (212) 818-0580 or by visiting www.garodnick.com .