See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
Cops from the 63rd Precinct are receiving an early Christmas present to help them nail repeat parking bandits — a truck-sized wheel clamp from the neighborhood’s civic groups.
Civic associations in Marine Park, Mill Basin, and surrounding communities are so fed up with the fleet of commercial trucks using their neighborhoods as a personal parking garage that they’ve decided to chip in and buy an auto immobilizer — better down as the Denver boot — to combat the wave of illegal parking.
“Our cops ticket them, the driver’s pay the tickets, and they’re back in the same spot that night!” said Paul Curiale, president of the Mill Basin Civic Association. “Provide the boot, and that’s a whole other story.”
Trucks have been parking illegally in major intersections for years, with most of the illicit parking occurring on Avenue U between E. 57th and E. 58th streets, and on Bergen Avenue, according to Curiale, who added that one flagrant parking hog was a poster boy for the disturbance.
“We’ve had a problem with the same truck for years,” Curiale said. “He’s been ticketed over and over, but the precinct doesn’t have a boot, so he just keeps paying the tickets.”
Curiale and Marine Park Civic Association President Jim Ivaliotis have pledged funds to buy the clamp, which costs from $100 to $600.
Ivaliotis was delighted that cops would soon be able to put the brakes on outlaw motorists — especially scofflaws.
“A lot of these guys have more than one outstanding fine on their trucks,” he said. “If they’re booted, they have to call someone to take it off and deal with their other fines in the process.”
The city currently has just one NYPD tow truck to haul off unlawfully parked vehicles, and it’s in that other borough across the East River, according to a police spokesman.
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.