‘STRETCHING’ THE PARKING RULES
IN SOHO
By JESSE ANGELO
SoHo residents are seeing rouge as cops turn a
blind eye to limousines flouting parking laws
outside the ultra-chic restaurant Balthazar.
Residents of the parking-poor neighborhood can’t
leave their cars in front of the French eatery
overnight – but a never-ending stream of limos
illegally idles until the wee hours of the morning
while their well-heeled passengers dine.
In a two-hour period last Wednesday night, The
Post watched as a total of 18 officers – including
four traffic-enforcement agents – failed to ticket or
shoo away limos waiting in the "No Standing"
zone outside the bistro.
One of the officers finally enforced the law after
being confronted by a reporter.
"It’s outrageous, it really is. We used to be able to
park there but now we can’t – somehow the limos
are allowed to just sit there," said Denicea Davis,
who works in the area.
Spring Street between Broadway and Crosby
Street was a quiet little stretch of asphalt until
restaurateur Keith McNally opened Balthazar in
1997.
Residents used to be able to park on the street on
weekends and weekdays from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.,
but increased traffic from the restaurant congested
the street at night.
In February 1998, the city Department of
Transportation put up signs saying "No Standing 6
p.m. – 6 a.m., including Sundays" on both sides of
the street.
Residents were willing to forgo their night parking
spots for a little peace and quiet – but the
limousines kept coming.
"The fact is that the chauffeurs are there all the
time," said resident Minerva Durham, who added
that clients of her drawing studio have been
ticketed for parking there.
One chauffeur confided, "We never have any
problems. The cops never make us move."
A cop walking the beat that night finally told the
drivers of waiting limos and taxis to move on his
second tour around the block – but only after
being pressed about the parking regulations.
"I try to show them a little courtesy, give them a
little leeway, but if they see me they should know
better," the cop said.
Capt. Stephen Spataro, commanding officer of
the Fifth Precinct, said he had not received any
complaints about the idling limos, but would make
sure the parking regulations are enforced in the
future.
Keith McNally, owner of Balthazar, said he was
not aware of a problem.
"I can’t quite see what problems the limousines are
causing, apart from the unsightliness of limousines
to begin with," he said.
"But if the limousines are causing a problem to
anyone, especially the neighbors, I will certainly
try and do something about it."
–
– Outlaw Frog Raper –
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Prison crunch time nearing
By Dan Walters
(Published May 28, 1999)
Robert Presley, the highly respected former cop and state
senator who heads the state’s correctional agency, says that in
just two years, "every nook and cranny" in the state’s huge
prison system will be filled with inmates.
There are 160,000 inmates now, eight times the 1980 prison
population, thanks to get-tough policies adopted by legislators
and voters. And despite massive prison construction in the
1980s and early 1990s, all but a few inmates are doubled up in
cells designed for one person or housed in gymnasiums and
other temporary quarters.
The projected moment at which the system will be filled to the
absolute brim has changed from time to time. But there’s no
question that it’s coming and that it will arrive before more
prisons can be built, due to construction lead time.
No one knows what will happen when absolute capacity is
reached. But prisoner rights groups probably will ask a federal
court to begin ordering releases on humanitarian grounds and if
they succeed, an unknown judge would assume effective
control of prisons.
The politics of the situation are, to say the least, complicated.
For years, then-Gov. Pete Wilson asked legislators to restart
prison construction, but liberal legislators, who disliked the
concept on principle, and conservatives who disliked spending
the money formed an odd-bedfellows alliance to rebuff Wilson’s
demands. Both said they wanted the state to explore less
intensive and/or less expensive alternatives to incarceration.
A major player has been the powerful California Correctional
Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), which paid lip service to
alternatives but backed construction. More prisons mean more
guards and more CCPOA members.
The CCPOA, which had been a strong supporter of Republican
Wilson, last year became an equally ardent and generous
backer of Democrat Gray Davis’ ultimately successful campaign
for the governorship. And this month, Davis returned the favor
by designating $355 million from the state’s revenue windfall to
build a new prison at Delano and begin designing another near
San Diego. It also burnished Davis’ carefully nurtured image of
being a Democrat who’s as tough as any Republican on crime.
Legislative Democrats just as quickly trashed Davis’ prison
construction program. "Keep prisons for those who are violent,"
Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa said this week. And
that’s where the situation sits as the annual budget dance
begins its final steps.
Republicans are not displeased with Democrats’ no-prisons
posture. "Let’s say a federal judge steps in and begins releasing
inmates and let’s say one of them rapes and murders
someone," muses one senior Republican legislator. "Who’ll get
the blame?"
Still another factor in the prison melodrama is Corrections Corp.
of America, which has built a 2,300-bed prison on speculation in
the Southern California desert and is offering, in effect, to help
the state solve its overcrowding problem.
One of the Legislature’s leading opponents of state prison
construction, Senate Democratic floor leader Richard Polanco, is
openly championing the private prison campaign. But the
ever-powerful CCPOA is, for obvious reasons, strongly
opposed, and the Davis administration has given the private
prison firm a cold shoulder.
So how will all of this play out? Negotiations are under way
among legislators and Davis aides on a compromise — similar to
one last year with Wilson — that would add a few prison beds in
return for more non-prison treatment programs. The only
certainty, however, is that as each day passes, the moment the
prisons overflow grows closer.
–
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