Locals postal over USPS staff’s parking in Slope
Postal workers continue to use
residential Park Slope streets as
parking lots for both their work
and personal vehicles, according
to residents, who said the federal
employees use placards to park illegally
even after an agency rep
told this newspaper that those
placards would be revoked (“Still
posting up: USPS workers keep
using placards to illegally park
on Slope streets, despite agency’s
pledge to revoke them,” by Colin
Mixson, online Jan. 31).
Last July, United States Postal
Service rep Xavier Hernandez said
placards would be revoked from
employees at the Ninth Street Post
Offi ce, after a report by this newspaper
exposed workers’ penchant
for using them to bogart parking
in the area.
But last week, our reporter saw
a non-agency vehicle bearing a
placard parked at a metered spot
on Ninth Street, before spotting another
non-agency vehicle equipped
with a Postal Service–issued placard
blocking the driveway of
an Eighth Street home between
Fourth and Fifth avenues, behind
the Ninth Street Post Offi ce.
And that block of Eighth Street
is overrun by vehicles using the
placards to park illegally, which
often block hydrants and street
sweepers, said a resident.
The parking problems sparked
a heated debate among readers:
It won’t change because that’s impossible
without infrastructure and
housing. Until public transportation
becomes non-awful, Brooklyn will be
totally car addicted. All our neighbors
go everywhere by car. It’s like
they’re living in suburban Long Island,
not the city. And who can blame
them when it’s impossible to get from
Flatbush to the other side of the park
using only bus or train without walking
a mile outdoors?
Second problem: the city is so unaffordable
to anybody but the rich,
especially Park Slope. Postal workers,
teachers, cops, fi remen — they
all live outside the city and so they
drive in to work. Residents of Park
Slope shouldn’t complain about these
very necessary workers using street
parking when they oppose building
affordable housing in their own
neighborhoods. Nimbys can’t have it
both ways. readytomoveaway
from Lefferts Gardens
Readytomoveaway, your point
about the horrible lack of quality
public transportation is a solid
one. But tell that to the people on
Eighth Street who have to deal with
their home values plummeting, vermin
overrunning their stoops, and
cranky “public servants” destroying
their peace of mind. Benny
from Park Slope
Thank you for this accurate and
timely reporting. The USPS station
and its associated vehicles (both
trucks and employee cars) have essentially
taken over this residential
block. It’s a huge problem that has
gradually escalated on the block for
the past several years, and nobody
seems to be willing to take accountability.
8thStreetDad
from Park Slope
Dont’t threaten them, terminate
them. When they improperly use
government tags, and government
trucks, for personal purposes (holding
spaces for their personal cars),
it’s a terminating act and a federal
fraud violation. Further, when doing
this personal act while on companygovernment
time, it’s stealing time
and defrauding the government —
another terminating act.
And if the supervisors are not taking
action to terminate these individuals,
they are knowingly permitting
government fraud and should be held
accountable to a higher degree than
the workers. To think that the USPS
is subsidized by taxes, and these public
parking spots are being blocked or
taken away from the very people paying
the taxes, is a disgrace.
Don’t Threaten, Terminate
from Park Slope
First off, from my understanding,
it’s not the employees’ fault, the parking
lot can only hold about 10 trucks,
the other 15 trucks or more have to be
park on the street. Unless they fi nd a
parking lot for the remaining 15-plus
trucks, Eighth Street is their parking
lot.
I personally know a lot of those
carriers and drivers. They are hardworking,
good people. Put yourself in
their shoes. Resident
from Park Slope
COURIER L 22 IFE, FEB. 8–14, 2019 DT
The community on Eighth Street
has no problem with postal employees
parking their personal vehicles
on the block. The problem is the
postal trucks that are a safety issue.
All legal spots on any city street
should be fair game for anyone pulling
out for another car to pull in. The
lack of postal-truck parking needs to
be addressed by the USPS.
Why do so many postal trucks
need to be parked on one block to
remedy the agency’s problem? Why
not park one postal truck on each of
the surrounding blocks, so the burden
is spread around and the safety
issue is lessened? The community of
Eighth Street wants to feel safe, and
we want the postal employees to have
their needs met so that they may perform
their jobs.
Can’t we all just get along?
from Park Slope
Leaving truck doors open and
blocking fi re hydrants for days on
end is of the utmost concern. It’s disrespectful
to the Fire Department,
and a major concern for the families
with small children on the block.
Have some respect for human life.
Please don’t block the hydrants.
Concerned Mother
from Gowanus
We need ‘Dreamers’
To the Editor,
On Jan. 23, the New York State
Legislature fi nally passed the Dream
Act. Yet, nearly every single Republican
state Senator and Assembly
member voted against it.
When it comes issues of immigration,
New York Republicans, like
the national party, continue to bury
their heads in the sand, while millennials,
the largest voting bloc in U.S.
history, overwhelmingly support policies
that would provide a pathway
out of the shadows for young, undocumented
immigrants.
For young so-called dreamers, the
United States is the only home they’ve
ever known, and we, as a party, need
to start building bridges instead of
plugging holes in our dilapidated, antiquated
walls.
New York’s Dream Act allows undocumented
children to qualify for tuition
assistance, provided they meet
certain requirements. They must attend
a New York state high school
for at least two years, graduate high
school or a high-school equivalency
program, apply to college within fi ve
years, and have at least one parent or
guardian who legally immigrated to
the United States, or is otherwise eligible
for in-state tuition rates.
The Development, Relief, and Education
for Alien Minors Act is not
about rewarding non-citizens over citizens,
it doesn’t “devalue” what it means
to be American. If anything, it fulfi lls
the American dream for thousands of
young people brought here by parents
desperate to give their children a better
life and a brighter future.
Current rhetoric espoused by
prominent New York State Republicans
is either willfully ignorant, politically
malfeasant, morally wrong,
or a combination of all three.
State Senate Minority Leader
John Flannagan (R–Long Island)
criticized passage of the bill by saying,
“… the Dream Act will reward
law-breaking illegal immigrants
with free college tuition.”
Even more disheartening is the
statement made by my own state Assemblywoman,
Nicole Malliotakis
(R–Bay Ridge), who said, “This is a
misguided attempt to reject the needs
of those who actually elected us to be
here, and putting those that are here
unlawfully ahead of them.” Assemblywoman
Malliotakis, especially,
should know better. As a daughter
of immigrants, you’d think she’d be
more invested in securing a better
future for other sons and daughters
of immigrants. Instead, she’s chosen
to cast dreamers as “unlawful,” as if
they had a choice in the matter.
She’s chosen political expediency
over doing the right thing. Sad.
Pitting young undocumented immigrants
against natural-born U.S.
citizens is a tactic straight out of the
Trump playbook, one that’s contributed
to the political wipeout of the
New York State Republican Party. According
to the New York City Mayor’s
Offi ce of Immigration Affairs, in 2017,
dreamers contributed $4.7 billion to
the city’s gross domestic product and
they account for more than $2 billion
in total earnings every year. Not only
is support for the Act good political
sense, it’s morally right, and it makes
sound economic sense as well.
Instead of taking issue with tuition
aid going to dreamers, Republicans
should take issue with the limited
amount of tuition aid available,
or the failure to make City of New
York and State of New York schools
more affordable. Make that your battle
cry. Joel Acevedo
Joel Acevedo is Vice President of the
Brooklyn Young Republican Club,
and founder of the Sunset Park
Republicans.
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