FROM THE HERALD NEWS (North Jersey Media Group)
Monday, January 15, 2007
By MEREDITH MANDELL
HERALD NEWS
PASSAIC -- Some residents wonder if city officials will ever find a cure for the city's parking headaches.
Most recently, several citizens complained that on Jan. 6 -- for the first time ever -- they received $55 tickets for blocking their own driveways.
"Why, after all these years? Why now are they penalizing, when they know there is not enough parking to go around," said Vivian Roberts, a 33-year Passaic resident who lives on Cedar Street. She was one of those cited on Jan. 6.
Noel Ortega, 39, of Summer Street, who was also ticketed on that date, says he does not want to park far from his house and take the chance that he might be mugged. He says he was held up last October at gunpoint on his way to work early in the morning.
"It's unsafe walking in neighborhoods by yourself late at night even if you only park two blocks away," Ortega said in Spanish. "I worry about my wife and three children."
Epifany Quelis, 25 of McKinley Street, said she was ticketed one Saturday night after going out for the evening with friends.
"I am single and I like to have fun ... but do you know what it is for me to pay a $55 ticket? It's muchissima," she said in Spanish.
The Passaic Police Department said that ticketing residents who block their own driveways is nothing new.
"They are not above the law, just because they live in Passaic," said Sgt. David Rivera, who said blocking your own driveway is against state statute. He said police ticket cars blocking driveways because it is a safety hazard.
In addition, at last Tuesday's city council meeting, Minnie Hiller-Cousins, an Iraq war veteran with knee injuries, voiced complaints about the lack of disabled parking in Passaic.
Hiller-Cousins, 52, of Highland Avenue, said that the city's engineering office told her that it was backlogged with requests and that she would have to wait a year before a disabled-parking sign could be placed in front of her house.
"If we remain in the city of Passaic and support Passaic, we will grow old. There will be a need for handicap parking," she said.
As residents continue to shout out about parking in Passaic, the city is trying to develop a new parking authority.
On Tuesday, the council will hold a special meeting at 8 a.m. to approve the city budget and an ordinance that will float nearly $3 million in bonds to the authority.
With the borrowed money, the authority is expected to purchase seven tracts of city land in the downtown business district for $2,805,000 to create additional parking lots. City Council President Gary Schaer acknowledged the city's parking woes, but said he expects that the authority will examine the problem and come up with remedies.
The city also amended a street-cleaning schedule, which takes effect today. Outcry over the new schedule grew after Schaer suggested that streets in the 3rd Ward Park neighborhood be exempt from regular curb-to-curb cleaning. He said that cleaning those streets was an unnecessary expense for the city.
But many residents felt that it was only fair that Park section residents suffer the inconvenience of moving their cars like everybody else.
"It was a tremendously divisive issue," Schaer said, but added, "This was a very good compromise, and people will live with it."