Solution said to be coming for NYPD parking on Sixth Avenue sidewalk opposite arena block

June 30 photo of Sixth Avenue north of Dean Street

It's vexing for neighbors, and its vexing for the cops--but a solution may be in sight.

Construction of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has cut the number of street parking spaces in the vicinity of the 78th Precinct stationhouse at Sixth Venue and Bergen Street, so that means police personnel driving to work have been parking on the sidewalk opposite the arena block, as shown in the photo above.

The "78th now has to combat park again, all the way from Dean to Pacific [streets]," said Wayne Bailey, president of the 78th Precinct Community Council, at the recent Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Community Update meeting. "When is that going to be addressed?"

He didn't quite get an answer from state officials or developer Greenland Forest City Partners.

However, at the meeting Tuesday of the Community Council, Captain Frank DiGiacomo, the commanding officer, said he and Bailey were working on a solution.

"Give me two weeks," he said.

Those 24 spaces in the mall

Also at the Community Update meeting, there was some back-and-forth on the nature of the parking that the developer is supposed to provide for the 78th Precinct.

"There is an environmental commitment that 24 spaces are provided... in proximity to the precinct house," said resident Peter Krashes, who has long pushed for accountability.

"They’re in the Atlantic Yards Terminal [sic]," replied Nicole Jordan, who leads community relations for Empire State Development (ESD), the state agency overseeing/shepherding Atlantic Yards. (Apparently she meant the Atlantic Terminal mall, owned by developer Forest City Ratner, which is across Atlantic Avenue from the Atlantic Yards site.)

That, replied Krashes, was "not in the [project] footprint.  The MEC [Second Memorandum of Environmental Commitments] is very clear... 24 spaces in the project footprint itself... What I think I just heard is there's a violation."

Krashes was right--I think. The document states:

1. FCRC shall provide 24 parking spaces on the Project site for police vehicles assigned to the 78th Precinct House. Such parking shall be provided without charge and at a location that is proximate and convenient to the Precinct House. FCRC shall have the right to modify the location of such spaces from time to time in order to address construction logistics and operational matters, provided that the location remains proximate and convenient to the Precinct House.

The first sentence seems unambiguous. The spaces must be on the project site. The second sentence notes that they can be moved, as long as the location is close to the Precinct House. That doesn't say they must remain on the project footprint, and the mall is arguably convenient to the Precinct House--at least as convenient as the farthest reaches of the project site (though not much of the project site).

 “What you've heard is there is an accommodation for parking," ESD official Marion Phillips III responded to Krashes. "You’re saying you want them in the footprint?"

"I'm saying it's your obligation is to put it in the footprint," Krashes responded. "It is the responsibility of the developer…. to deliver 24 spaces inside the footprint."

After that, state officials and Bailey disagreed as to whether use of the mall lot was acceptable to the police. (I didn't get to clarify that with DiGiacomo, but will update if I learn more.)