More Roosevelt Island Parking Problems - Is There Selective Issuance Of Parking Tickets & Priveledges Depending Upon Whom You Know?

Parking Ticket Being Issued in Front of 425 Main Street

In response to this post on parking problems for Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk residents and workers at Southtown's Main Street, several readers complained:

...cars were parked along the sidewalk with Bogus Placards that said Monadnock Construction, Authorized Parking. When I called PSD, they said no construction company had authorization to park on the street, and the placards were apparently fake.

and:

Southtown parking is a joke. Illegal use of parking placards - construction, NYPD, MTAPD, BOE, how about handwritten building concierge, menu's, construction vests, Union County NJ placards, and the list goes on. All of these are passed by Public Safety and not ticketed. Why?? Free food? Courtesy? Like it would be reciprocal, I doubt it. You complain and they tell it's none of your business, I'm just not sure what their business is.

Another reader noticed after the last snowstorm that:

It is interesting that the snow, which began to accumulate on Thursday, and finally ended late Friday evening, can be still found piled up on several automobiles on Main Street.

The cars, clearly in violation 1) of any 40 minute parking limit, and 2) a need for plows to be able to clear the snow from Main Street, remain with full windshields of snow on Saturday evening.

Public Safety has not cleared the snow to put on a ticket and the cars have not been towed away.

Who are these people with parking privileges? How does one get to be on such a favored "no ticket/no tow list?"

I asked Roosevelt Island Public Safety Director Keith Guerra about this parking issue:

I have been getting messages recently about parking ticket selective enforcement by Public Safety Department particularly along Main Street in Southtown. Residents and workers are complaining that the few parking spaces available are being taken up by those "favored" by RIOC or Public Safety Department to the unfair detriment of others not so lucky. Others have mentioned fake or "bogus" authorization stickers on windshields that indicate to Public Safety Department that these cars should not be ticketed. On Saturday afternoon, I saw a car with a Monadnock Construction sticker


that was not ticketed while others without the sticker were. Attached is photo of the sticker on windshield and car parked on street next to double parked car.


Also, why are some so-called "authorized" cars allowed to park in the Zip Car area across from 455 Main Street? What makes these cars authorized and others not. Steve Shane has indicated that the Tennis Club patrons will not be allowed to park there but they are still doing so and signage indicates that they are allowed to do so.

Do you care to comment on this and on Roosevelt Island Parking ticket enforcement in general. I will be publishing post on topic this week

Mr. Guerra replied:

I will not dignify the first portion of your e-mail regarding "favoritism" with an answer, as the notion is not only false but offensive. There are no fake or bogus authorization stickers, which indicate to an Officer - not to ticket a vehicle. While part of an Officer's duties are to enforce Parking Violations, that is not their primary function. Sometimes vehicles parked in violation go un-ticketed.

The only Official Placards that are being honored are those used by members of the NYPD Transit Division, who are granted the courtesy of 2 spaces near the Zip-cars parked along the fence of the old Monadnock Construction Area (now being used by POMA for the Tram Operation). Before that lot was turned over to POMA, vehicles belonging to Monadnock Construction workers were authorized to park inside. They were given a piece of paper (by their company) indicating that they worked for Monadnock (or Related).

The picture you attached is that paper, which is no longer in effect. Vehicles bearing that piece pf paper, parked in on the street are subject to the same Parking Rules that all other vehicles have to follow. They are not exempt from receiving tickets, and have received them. If you, or any other resident, sees a vehicle parked in violation, I encourage a phone call to the Public Safety Department so that it may be ticketed.

To my knowledge, the Managers of the Tennis Complex worked out a temporary arrangement to have their patrons park in the area near the Zip-cars, and still have that permission. Another area is being sought out, but until the details are worked out, they are allowed to park there (and have a piece of paper in their windows indicating that they are Tennis Complex patrons).

Lastly, residents who come into the Public Safety Department asking for a courtesy to temporarily park in certain areas, are granted that courtesy and are not ticketed.

I responded:

I am sorry that you think my question regarding selective enforcement of parking tickets by Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department is offensive. It was not intended to give offense but merely to question and give you an opportunity to respond to a belief (commonly held?) by some Roosevelt Island residents.

As to the "courtesy" extended to some who enter the Public Safety Department to ask for temporary parking allowances, that is difficult for Riverwalk residents since they live a distance away from PS office. Perhaps a system could be worked out using a phone to allow the same courtesy for Riverwalk residents as allowed for others living near Public Safety office.

Followed by Mr. Guerra:

Residents coming on to the island have to pass the Public Safety office before they arrive at Riverwalk. They may even stop in one of our spaces to come in and ask for a courtesy parking.

We have fielded calls from Riverwalk & Octagon residents asking for courtesy parking, but they need to provide their license plate, make & color as well as the reason for their request. We have honored those requests and will continue to do so.

There is a prior history on Roosevelt Island, admittedly prior to Mr. Guerra's tenure, of allegations that the Public Safety Department selectively enforced parking regulations. According to this January 2008 Daily News article:

... Some locals said parking regulations are selectively enforced by Roosevelt Island Public Safety, whose officers have the right to ticket cars and make arrests.

"They will not issue a summons to friends," said Ron Schuppert, chairman of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association's public safety committee and a retired NYPD officer with 25 years on the job.

"It's like a small Southern town. It's nothing but nepotism," he said.

Farance and Schuppert alleged there is a secret list of people who are immune from ticketing.

Steve Shane — president of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., which oversees Public Safety — said the list is an urban legend.

"There's no such list," Shane said. "There may have been one but there certainly isn't one now."...

More from earlier post here.