Written by the people and for the people, Streetsblog NYC covers transportation policy and sustainability in all five boroughs, hoping to foster change by improving safety conditions, funding, and transit accessibility. This particular article examines parking placard abuse in Downtown Brooklyn while inadvertently commenting on tension prompted by gentrification processes in the area. Illegal parking practices endanger bikers riding down Jay Street, David Meyer argues, which will not cease with the implementation of supposedly safer proposed bike lanes. Abuse of parking placards will still run rampant, with government officials working in the courts either inappropriately using their identification to park illegally and without safety of pedestrians or bikers in mind. Meyers claims, “the problem speaks to the inability and unwillingness of the law enforcement establishment to police itself for the public’s benefit.” He thereby outlines a fundamental schism between general residents and employees of Downtown Brooklyn; where the former claim the area for their commercial and fiscal benefit, latter individuals view the land as theirs to inhabit and travel as they wish. Contentions ultimately boil down to a question of urban planning and which demographics a neighborhood should be intended to benefit.
