Picture of triple-parkers from Gerritsenbeach.net Passing a vehicle across a double line in New York State is a 3-point offense. It's difficult to find out what the penalty is for parking across a double line. New Yorkers are overly familiar with egregious parking jobs, but GerritsenBeach.net had to admire the triple-parking job that some neighbors accomplished recently. Apparently, the diagonal hash marks on the left of the road indicated to one driver that the......

A survey conducted by the Transportation Dept. and released yesterday [pdf file] illustrated the sorry state of parking in lower Manhattan. The survey showed that the number of cars far exceeded the number of available parking spots in the financial district, unless one possessed a city parking placard.In the area it covered, largely the area south of Canal Street, there were only 1,105 metered parking spaces and 871 unregulated spaces available to the drivers......

A proposal by City Council Member Hiram Monserrate would give hybrid car drivers free parking at meters for a year after their initial purchase. If the legislation passes, drivers with receipts for hybrid cars could apply for the permits, which the Queens councilman says would cost the city little in lost revenue, because the taxes from new car sales would make up for the quarters lost at parking meters. But Council Member John Liu, chairman......

In a few days the city will begin its promised crackdown on the glut of parking placards issued to civil servants. But according to Uncivil Servants, a website that documents illegally parked cars displaying city permits, employees of Park East, an Upper East Side synagogue, have been using bogus DIY parking placards for years. And since they don’t even work for the city, their privileges won’t be affected by the new rules. Uncivil Servants says......

Demonstrating just how valuable free parking in New York City is, a rash of smash and grab thefts has struck areas in Washington Heights and the Bronx, where firefighters have had their car windows broken and parking placards stolen. Most of the thefts have occurred right outside of firehouses, usually when members are called out to a fire, according to the New York Post. The recent increase in placard jacking began shortly after Mayor Bloomberg......

Photograph of a Smart Car perpendicularly parked from Jalopnik We've been following the progress of the Smart Car's U.S. introduction for a while and last month it was reported that they would be making their way to NYC this month. Jalopnik took a ride in the first Smart Car and has photographs of the 8.8' by 5.1' car in some super scenic NYC spots. Jalopnik's Wes Siler wrote, "Congested urban streets and crowded highways......

Back in 2006, an agreement signed the day construction started for the new Yankee Stadium promised the team would pay $1.2 million a year in cash and in kind to a fund benefiting Bronx residents for 40 years. It was a gesture to make up for the inconvenience during construction and loss of parkland the new stadium was costing the neighborhood. After a year and half, none of the money has been distributed - and......

Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that he would reduce the number of parking permits for civil servants by 20% has annoyed yet another group. Joining police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency workers are teachers. Teachers union president Randi Weingarten sent Mayor Bloomberg a letter to call the permit limits"deeply disturbing." Weingarten complains that teachers actually have too few permits. United Federation of Teachers vice-president Michael Mulgrew told the Sun that teachers end up making "informal deals"......

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the city will crackdown on the abuse of parking permits issued to civil servants, reducing the overall number by 20%. The change comes after the Post revealed in November that “149 separate government entities had qualified for the coveted placards last year, ranging from the state lottery to the US Navy recruiting office, which was allocated an astonishing 110 permits.” In fact, so many agencies produce and distribute the parking......

In November, we wrote about famed realtor Barbara Corcoran advising home owners to ditch their lawns and gardens in favor of a concrete parking spot. Some homeowners really take this advice to heart and insist on wedging an extra parking space onto their property even when it's not very practical, or possible. Above is a cropped portion of a picture posted at Queens Crap. While this sidewalk-blocking parking job at 68th St. and Hull......

Perhaps it's the high cost of fuel or the difficulty to find parking, but the arrival of the Smart car has some New Yorkers very excited. The compact car first made its debut in New York at the MoMA, but should be in showrooms in late January. Mercedes Benz parent company Daimler says that over 30,000 people have paid the $99 to reserve one of the $15,000 cars and The Post says many of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

It’s that time of year again when New Yorkers debate how much to tip the – deep breath – doorman, super, handyman, locker room attendant, trainer, baby sitter, dog walker, beauty salon, cleaning person, day care center, garbage collector, mail carrier, paperboy and parking attendant(s). Sewell Chan, the Times’s Man on the Web, has tied himself to the tipping post with a 1,780 word monograph on the subject, largely sourced from Doorman, a book by......

The way the local news was hyping today's storm (especially with their nifty, paranoid graphics!), we expected to see a few inches of snow by the time we woke up. But, no, the snow is expected to come around later this morning (the snow and sleet will make a NYC appearance around 11AM or 1PM, according to WABC). Even so, there are many school closings in the suburbs as local government and anyone else out......

The Independent Budget Office released a report examining who might be affected by congestion pricing. The report, "Behind the Wheel: Who Drives Into The Proposed 'Congestion Zone'" can be read here (PDF) but the topline is that drivers are middle-class and over half are from Nassau County, Westchester, NJ, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The report states, "Looking at the extremes of the earnings distribution for all congestion zone commuters, motor vehicle users were less likely......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a severed limb on 55th St. in Brooklyn, a person fatally struck by a train near the East Tremont Station on the 2 line in the Bronx, and an armed robbery on Bradhurst and 147th St. in Manhattan. A mother brought her 15-year-old son to the hospital when she discovered him assembling what appeared to be a bomb in their home. The ER at Hoboken University Medical Center was......

A 65-year-old man was killed during his bicycle ride to work when he was struck by an open car door in the bike lane at 6th Avenue and 36th Street. David Smith was then pushed off his bike and into the path of a box truck, which hit him. Smith lived on West 9th Street and worked as an engineer at Town Hall in midtown. His partner of 36 years John Moody said that he......

Freaked out about the explosions in your neighborhood, only to find out via 311 that it's just fireworks? Or wondering about the fire around the corner? Well, the city actually does want you to know about what's going on in your neighborhoods and announced the pilot program launch of Notify NYC, which will deliver "emergency public information by email, text messages and reverse-911 alerts in four City community districts." The four districts are Lower Manhattan,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a homicide on Merrick and Baisley Blvds. in Queens, an overturned auto on the F.D.R. Drive at East 23rd St. in Manhattan, and shots fired at the police at 58th St. and 18th Ave. in Brooklyn. Two employees were found dead in an empty 20,000 gallon vat they were cleaning at an industrial laundry service in NJ. The men appear to have been overcome by chemical fumes and suffocated.......

The south Jersey town of Vineland – or “shithole Vtown” as some locals call it – will host a massive three-day rock festival with camping this August. The Vineland Festival will be presented in a partnership between the company that resurrected Lollapalooza in Chicago and U.K. concert promoter Melvin Benn, who has managed the Reading Festival. No acts have been announced but that hasn’t stopped promoters from setting their price: a three-day pass, which......

A rendering of Brooklyn's proposed City Tech Tower, designed by Renzo Piano, at Tillary and and Jay Street sent some into speculation mode, especially since its height seemed to be up to 1,000 feet tall. Which would make just about twice the height of the 512-foot tall Williamsburgh Savings Bank, currently the tallest building the Brooklyn. However, the rendering of the building is apparently old. A representative at Forest City Ratner, the development company which......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person fatally injured under a train at 77th St. in Manhattan, a shooting at Neptune Ave and West 35th St. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on 133rd Ave. in Queens. A 24-year-old man killed his mother and brother and then dumped them in the Harlem River. Young teenagers are clamoring to learn about sex. Mayor Bloomberg feels that city parking placards are being abused and will start cracking......

Yesterday morning's rain caused a recently installed sewer main to burst, flooding the basement and parking garage of a Battery Park City luxury apartment building. Water levels reached up to 20 feet. Not only were car owners greeted with news that their vehicles were either submerged or floating on top of sewer water, hundreds of tenants at 90 West Street were evacuated. Fire officials explained that, per WNBC, "rain flooded a re-routed sewer pipe,......

Three men were stabbed during a fight at a Midtown parking garage early Sunday morning. They were apparently in town for a birthday celebration at Mars 2112, but got into an argument with another group, made up of at least five men and two women, while waiting for their car at the Central Parking Corp at 810 Seventh Avenue. It's unclear what the fight was over, but 1010 WINS suggested that the groups had clashed......

NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews Jean Nouvel's future 75-story tower at 53 West 53rd Street, describing it as "the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation." He compares Nouvel's latest to the Woolworth, Chrysler and Seagram buildings. Filling a 17,000 square-foot vacant lot next to MoMA, the structure will be the future site of a developer Hines' 100-room hotel and 120 "highest-end" (Hines' words) luxury apartments. MoMA, which sold the lot......

The United Nations has been called a firetrap by a number of elected officials, Mayor Bloomberg among them. He recently demanded that the building stay on track to fix its many violations of the fire code. The famous Secretariat building doesn't have an internal sprinkler system, and it was built with asbestos, which could fill the air if pipes explode. Additionally, apparently, if too many fire trucks are parked in the plaza, they might fall......

Yesterday was the city's day to honor and remember veterans of the U.S. armed forces. The 88th annual Veterans Day Parade started with the Eternal Light Monument Ceremony in Madison Square Park, followed by a parade up Fifth Avenue to 56th Street. An estimated 20,000 gathered for the parade, and there were veterans from World War II, Korean War, and the Iraq War. Mayor Bloomberg said, "You should know that 70 New Yorkers have given......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on Monument Walk in Brooklyn, a stabbing on West 31st St. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on Hughes Ave. in Brooklyn. Cops are looking into the death of a man who was found unconscious in the bathroom of the Knitting Factory. They're deeming the incident suspicious. A Columbia University hunger striker was carried off a couch after passing out from hunger. Meanwhile, a group of drunken students......

Famed New York realtor Barbara Corcoran chimed in on a matter of public aesthetics and the nature of our city by advising that homeowners would be best served by tearing up their lawns and gardens and paving them over as a suitable place to park their cars. We'll let her speak directly on the subject, as it seems too insane to try to rephrase ourselves. From Friday's Daily News:Q. My wife and I have......

It's finally come to this. The lights of the Great White Way have gone dark in a dispute between the theater stagehands of Local One and producers and theater owners. The labor dispute which has been simmering for months and left the stagehands without a contract for an equal time, resulted in a shutdown of Broadway shows on the verge of the theater district's most profitable season. The stalemate came to to a head after......