Over 230 drivers are authorized to park free, without danger of a summons, on Roosevelt Island's streets, according to a list provided to The WIRE by RIOC in response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.

That's more free parkers than there are parking places.  The WIRE's FOIL request asked for the then-current “Do Not Summons” list then in force at the Public Safety Department (PSD).  In response, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation provided a list with 236 entries.  On the other hand, while the August, 2004, FOIL request called for the list “as it exists as of this date,” some entries on the list go back to 2001 – yet no list was provided for 2003.

In addition, at least ten cars parked with immunity from summons on June 30, 2003, and still parked on August 17, 2004, are not on the 13-page list provided by RIOC, according to Island House resident Geof Kerr, who has made something of a pastime of counting cars parked without summonses.  “The information provided by RIOC looks suspiciously like an effort to overwhelm you with useless information,” Kerr said last week.  “At the same time, they clearly have not provided complete information on the current list of parkers immune from summons.”

On-street parking has been an issue for some time on Roosevelt Island.  Residents returning from shopping trips are forced to double park – itself the subject of forbidding signs – in order to unload groceries or handicapped or elderly passengers.  The lists provided by RIOC suggest that a broad range of personnel at RIOC and PSD have the authority to put a car on the immune list.  Authorizing names include Suarez, Dir. [Jim] Fry, Banberger, Ortega, RIOC, Yee, Bryan, Aida (an administrative aide in the PSD office), Williams, Rios, Santiago, Azular, Cohn, Wright, Coleman, “Per Lt.,” a variety of initials (some indecipherable), and even “Unk” (presumably for “unknown”), and even, simply, “?.”  In a “Purpose” column, words like “work” and “merch” appear frequently, along with “mech” and “chapel,” “handicap” and “medical.”  Also listed are “official,” “MTA,” “RIHM,” and “handicapped grandson.”

Individuals whose cars have handicap plates (a wheelchair symbol) may legally park, without paying the parking fee and without receiving a summons, wherever parking is legal.  But on Roosevelt Island, many street parkers who hang a “handicapped” tag from their mirrors and their cars remain unticketed.  Such tags are intended only for use in parking lot spaces designated as being for handicapped users only, but not for on-street parking.  RIOC's response to the WIRE FOIL request was several weeks overdue when it was supplied, even though the request was a simple one – for a copy of the list then currently in force at PSD.

Kerr, who is scoutmaster to both the Island's Cub Scouts and its older Boy Scouts, pays the $71 a month employee rate to park the Scouts' van in Motorgate.  He wondered aloud why RIOC doesn't relegate those parkers who have some legitimate reason to park free to a designated section of Motorgate.  He has an open letter to RIOC President Herbert E. Berman in this issue of The WIRE.  Some drivers would appear to have reasonable cause for some special consideration.  “Death in family” is one such listing.  Click here for the complete list; use your browser's BACK button to return here.