Canarsiens are tired of being ticketed.
At the October meeting of the Friends United Block Association (FUBA), which was held at Temple Shaare Emeth, 6012 Farragut Road, they made their dissatisfaction with the situation clear, complaining loudly and repeatedly of tickets received for double-parking in front of their own homes, while unloading groceries, or for a minute to drop off a passenger, with the driver still sitting behind the steering wheel. “They’re targeting our neighborhood, that’s what I see,” one man contended.
“One day, my friend was dropping me off, and she got a ticket,” a woman complained.
One man said he received a ticket for double-parking at 1 a.m., when he was unloading his laundry from his car. “There was no place to park,” he recounted. “I took the laundry to my house, and when I came out, there was a ticket on my vehicle.”
Captain Milt Marmara, the commanding officer of the 69th Precinct, said, however, that double-parking at any time or for any reason is a ticketable offense.
“Even if you’re in the vehicle, and the vehicle is stopped at the location, technically that’s a summons,” he told the group. “That is the law.”
Nonetheless, Marmara said, the precinct tends to write such summonses in “the worst areas of Canarsie,” such as Rockaway Parkway between Farragut Road and Flatlands Avenue, where double-parking, even briefly, is an inconvenience to many people and even, potentially, a danger. “I specifically ask my officers to write more tickets at that location,” Marmara told the group.
“Think about the person who’s behind you, who’s trying to pass you,” he urged.”And, that happens a lot.”
Even on the side streets, Marmara said, double-parked vehicles can present a hazard. “We get a lot of accidents on side streets that are very narrow, where a car is double-parked on one side and a car parked on the other side is side-swiped,” Marmara explained, adding, “You have to find a spot.”
Nonetheless, he said, “If you get a summons, you always have the right to contest it, explain your side of the story.”
