QUEENS — Dozens of court officers and city employees park on a daily basis in "No Standing Anytime" and "No Parking" zones — with parking placards on display — near the Queens Criminal Courthouse and Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, despite a recent announcement by Mayor Bill de Blasio that the city will crack down on similar practices, local residents say.
The problem, locals say, has been plaguing the neighborhood for years, even though there are several parking areas marked specifically for court officers and other city employees near the courthouse and borough hall.
Still, dozens of cars park in several restricted areas throughout the neighborhood, including a "No Standing Anytime" stretch along Queens Boulevard between the exit ramp from the Van Wyck Expressway and Hoover Avenue, residents said.
Photo: DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska
“This is unbelievable,” said former NYPD detective Phil Serpico, who lives across the street from the courthouse and uses a motorized wheelchair to move around. “People with handicapped plates cannot put their car in a "No Standing" zone yet the whole strip along Queens Boulevard is full of court officer cars in a "No Standing" zone.”
Locals said the corner is dangerous even without cars parked there because vehicles exit the Van Wyck Expressway at a high rate of speed, and sometimes fail to yield to pedestrians trying to cross the street.
Cars parked along the inner lane near the exit additionally obstruct the view of pedestrians and drivers merging with the Queens Boulevard traffic, residents said.
"It’s a highway exit and I can’t see because there are cars parked in the exit ramp," Serpico said, while trying to cross the street at the exit last week. "And the exiting cars are now swerving to the left just to avoid the parked cars.”
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The area has recently undergone a massive overhaul as part of the Kew Gardens Interchange project conducted by the state Department of Transportation, which sought to reconstruct the Van Wyck.
Following the completion of the project in the neighborhood, the city’s Department of Transportation installed "No Standing Anytime" signs along the stretch in May, to allow cars exiting the expressway to merge safely onto westbound Queens Boulevard, the agency said.
But cars continue to park along the stretch.
“Soon, you’ll have cars parked right up to the highway,” Serpico noted.
According to the city's DOT, no city or state issued placards allow drivers to park in a "no standing anytime zone.”
Placard owners, the agency said, must park their cars in full accordance with posted signs, adding that the NYPD is responsible for parking enforcement.
Serpico said that last Wednesday he reached out to a local traffic enforcement office as well as to the 102nd Precinct, but was told by their representatives that they would not issue any tickets out of courtesy to court officers, he said.
“It’s a courtesy according to them but it’s a benefit that we don’t get,” Serpico said. “It’s really offensive. They need to obey the traffic regulations like I did [when I was an NYPD detective] or lobby their bosses to convert the signs for their use.”
Photo: DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska
The NYPD, the Mayor’s Office and the New York State Court Officers Association, a union representing New York court officers, did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
