“An important visitor is back…same vehicle… while Island residents scramble for parking. 3 blocked off spaces…” a resident reported.
Photos courtesy of The Space Cadet
No scratching your head, wondering who this car belongs to. It belongs to someone doing business with RIOC, probably an employee too precious to park in Motorgate or in spaces the rest of us compete for.
One other thing the plaque tells us: This car can park anywhere on the streets. They don’t have to snag a special place in the official New York State Shelton J. Haynes Parking Area.
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The Line That Didn’t Land
I stood in the back of Good Shepherd Chapel on the evening of April 15, 2026, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, watching people adjust scarves and jackets before the meeting began. Benjamin Jones, President and CEO of RIOC, thanked us for attending and, without a pause, said he was “pleased to host tonight’s town hall on the city’s demolition of its steam plant.” The demolition, in other words, was not up for discussion.
You wrote that residents scramble for parking spaces. One reason is that cars park for hours with no Muni tkts. on their dashboards and no parking violation tkts on the windshield. Some clever folks display a Muni tkt that is days old. A few do sport a violations tkt that also looks days old. They should be towed. I have spotted a car with no tags taking a spot in front of Westview. Public Safety in the car patrols never spotted that . Nor do they issue tkts. They should patrol on foot! A plausible explanation for so few Muni tkts displayed is that on all of Main from the school to the Rivercross lawn there are only 3 Muni dispensing machines. For some that is a really long walk and, since no one tickets them anyway, why bother? Meanwhile residents returning from shopping cannot find a spot for 5 minutes to unload. Oh yes, there are always three to four PS vehicles plus Kevin Brown’s personal vehicle in front of Island House. I believe Berman made them park behind their offices. Kevin Brown’s personal car offends me as much as the Haynes spots offend you.
Once again, Mary, it begs the question of why the hell we’re paying $4 million a year for this useless operation. They don’t enforce anything, and then, they have the nerve to drive around with their emergency lights flashing to create an illusion of genuine activity. RIOC was never a crack operation, but it’s so much worse now than ever, the annoyance level is rising.
Keep talking. Keep raising awareness.
PS: Kevin Brown’s car. My bad, I guess. I got so used to PSD hogging prime Main Street spots and doing nothing that I stopped paying attention.