Time to Fix School Parking

Of all the evil Bloomberg perpetrated on the NYC school system, and on us, the teachers, screwing with our ability park is pretty far down the list.

But the symbolism was immense. The City gained absolutely nothing by taking away many of our parking permits, no spaces were freed up for other purposes, no cost savings was accrued to the municipal coffers. Bloomberg inconvenienced us – because he could.

So, undoing this could be an easy priority for the UFT. Going back to a fair parking system will not cost the city any money. And there would be great symbolism, de Blasio undoing a piece of blatant Bloomberg spite. And, it needs to be done outside of contract negotiations.

So last Monday New Action brought a resolution, calling on the UFT to prioritize this. Unity asked to make one change, which we agreed to. The following became a bipartisan resolution, and passed unanimously.

UFT Executive Board Resolution on parking

June 2, 2014

Whereas, New York City limited parking placards for city workers, including UFT members in 2008, and

Whereas the stated intent of the change was to eliminate abuse of parking placards and to free up curbside spaces, and

Whereas several agencies had placards which could be used anywhere, and were sometimes used unnecessarily and

Whereas teachers had a totally different kind of placard, only allowing access to spaces in front of schools during school hours, on a first come, first served basis, (meaning the permit allowed the holder to park if he or she found a spot, not a guaranteed space) and

Whereas, unlike with other agencies, there were not major concerns about abuse of UFT/school parking, and

Whereas, the City forced a new agreement with the UFT anyway, changing the system from first come first served, to a system where many fewer had permits, outraging many of our members, and

Whereas, the City gained nothing tangible through this agreement, neither freeing up parking nor delivering any cost savings, and

Whereas, “preserving the number of spaces” did no good for those many members who lost their permits, but for schools without sufficient designated parking there is already an appeals process in place, and

Whereas, through this agreement Bloomberg was able to inconvenience thousands of teachers, consistent with his overall treatment of us, and

Whereas, Mayor de Blasio, Chancellor Fariña, and the new city administration have no interest in continuing to harass and inconvenience teachers and other UFT members,

Therefore, be it RESOLVED the United Federation of Teachers will work with the new administration to return to an equitable parking system, where spaces are not pre-allocated, and be it further

Resolved the UFT will push to have this improvement in working conditions in place as soon as possible, and be it further

Resolved the UFT will publicize the appeals process for additional spaces.