One of the most serious problems with the city’s traffic congestion is that emergency vehicles frequently cannot respond to scenes quickly enough. I think you need to consider the possible repercussions of INTENTIONALLY creating gridlock. Imagine if one of your loved ones were to suffer or even die because a deliberately created traffic-jam delayed the response of FIRE/PD/EMS.

I absolutely agree that something drastic needs to change, but I believe we need to be responsible in how we accomplish it.

why the city allows city employees permits to park is beyond me, however i’m w/Angus, a zipcar for when the metrocard will not work out due to the inaccessibility of public transport would work better than a city car.

Right, and what if Bloomberg declared a holiday from enforcement of parking in reserved zones near public employment (ie. school parking zones)? Same thing.

What makes private property private? The right of exclusion, that’s what.

I once proposed that very same idea to the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association. They were having trouble with government employees taking all of the parking spots in front of their members’ stores. I suggested that each merchant have a stack of the very same bogus government parking permits at the counter. Hand them out to customers who come by car. Then go ahead and hand them out to every car owner in the neighborhood. Make them worthless and force the city to do something about it.

It’d be a parking permit deflationary death spiral. Not unlike the Federal Reserve’s current dollar policy.

Don’t you get it? The congestion fee IS a crackdown on the value of he permit, at least in Manhattan, because driving to Manhattan and parking there would no longer be “free.” That is why the political class and related groups is so opposed. It is attempt to do something — limit the value of a perk — that has been otherwise impossible.

The red herring created by opponents is telling the teacher with seniority who lives in Staten Island that she has to take mass transit to a violent school in Browsville. It is intended to dissaude any part of the feudal oligarchy from leaving the fold.

Now of course, the 20% cut in permits could all be in the CBD. But that’s where the brass works…

Speaking as someone who used to do some field research for NYC (for zoning studies, pre-census work), there is nothing more wasteful than for someone doing field work to show up at the office. Commute from home to the first site, commute to home from the last site, and work every minute you are paid to.

The best solution would be to decentralize the city car fleet. If there were a Zipcar for government employees, they could take the subway, bus or commuter rail to specific locations and pick up a car there. Locations at Queens Plaza, Jamaica, Flushing, Saint George, Coney Island, East New York, Pelham Bay Park and 207th Street would cover most of the areas that are hard to get to by transit.

Speaking as someone who used to do some field research for NYC (for zoning studies, pre-census work), there is nothing more wasteful than for someone doing field work to show up at the office. Commute from home to the first site, commute to home from the last site, and work every minute you are paid to.

In Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan, I found it was easier to just move around by transit. No going back to where the car was before moving on. I’d organize the work to do areas near each other on the same day. (I’ll bet I could have done it even faster on a bike, but I didn’t have one at the time). In Staten Island, I’d use my own car, sans permit.

I really didn’t like field work with my fellow employees. Only got half as much done. The addtional trips from the office to pick up a city car, and from the city car pick up to the first field location, and then the reverse, is the reason why.