Farragut Road has become a cash cow for city Traffic Enforcement Agents, and a misplaced no-parking sign is to blame, claim angered motorists who have been hit with tickets.
Residents living on the long Canarsie span between E. 104th and E. 105th streets said that a sign prohibiting parking from 7:30 am to 9 am Monday through Friday vanished from one side of the street several months ago and was never replaced. Now, some drivers believe that the parking spots are up for grabs — and are paying a stiff price for their mistake.
The motorists learn about the block’s no parking hours the hard way — usually in the form of a ticket, explained Marcia Garrett, a Canarsie activist who frequently parks along the block on her way to the E. 105th Street L train station.
“[On March 21] there were about 10 cars parked there and they had already ticketed eight of them,” Garrett said.
But the street is not entirely without signage: one sign remains on the E. 104th Street side of the block — giving cops all the legal prerogative they need to hand out sanctions.
“If there’s no signs at all that would be ridiculous for a police officer to write that summons,” said a police source. “But if there’s even one sign, it should cover the whole block.”
But Garrett says it’s hardly fair to hand out tickets when the only no-parking sign is at the far end of a long street.
“They wouldn’t notice it,” Garrett said. “People are going to look for signs near where they’re going to park, and they’re not going to think that the sign near E. 104th has anything to do with where they’re parking. It’s very confusing.”
The Department of Transportation is investigating the missing signs and will replace them as necessary, a city spokeswoman said.
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
