The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
CNG Boro Politics

Parking up the wrong street

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Paper / Jeff Bachner
Opposite sides of this “No Parking” sign on Pacific Street display conflicting information.
The Brooklyn Paper / Jeff Bachner

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

Vandalized parking signs near a Boerum Hill school touched off a brouhaha last week over one of the city’s scarcest and most vital resources — parking spots.

A Pacific Street resident returned home last Thursday to discover his car had been towed because someone had crudely tampered with a “No parking” sign to make it seem that his legal spot was in a zone reserved for teachers at PS 38, also on the block between Third Avenue and Nevins Street.

Anarchy has ensued. Residents have exchanged accusations with the school — and each side alleges its rightful spaces have been lost by defacement of the signs.

The school’s principal denied incendiary rumors that appeared on an Internet message board claiming that a custodian was seen altering a one-headed arrow indicating the no-parking zone so that the arrow had two heads — thereby limiting the entire south side of Pacific Street to vehicles with Department of Education placards.

The man whose car was towed certainly thinks a school official did the deed.

“You have to ask yourself who benefits by making the whole block ‘school-only’ parking,” said David Jacobson.

But the principal claims this not the first case of sabotage, with miscreants concealing the regulations with white paint, leaving her staff uncertain of where they can park.

“The whole block is messed up. The signs are ruined,” said Yolanda Ramirez.

The truth is that PS 38 is entitled to about six spaces on Pacific Street, which will be made clear when the Department of Transportation, the judge, jury and executioner of on-street parking, replaces the tampered signs.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

←Fashion: Spring essentials
→Checkin’ in with: Regina Myer, Brooklyn Bridge Park president

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.