50th's parking ticket quota revealed

1996

Aha!

Parking tickets, development and the Hudson River Greenway dominated the front pages of The Riverdale Press in 1996.

A source within the 50th Precinct gave the paper specifics about the quota system for giving out parking tickets. The precinct, the source said, was required by the city to pass out 5,000 violation notices every month.

Then as now, official word was that parking tickets are only given out when infractions are spotted by officers, not solely because the city needs a steady stream of income.

Down by the river, discussions about creating a path that would reach from Battery Park in Manhattan north along the Hudson to Spuyten Duyvil, through Riverdale and all the way up the river to Albany. Plans were drawn up, meetings were held, but practically speaking, little got done.

Instead of green space growing in the Riverdale area, it was increasingly under attack by development.

Near the end of the year, a developer proposed an 18-story building for seniors called the Atria. Opposition was so fierce that it spurred an effort to rezone the entire Riverdale/Kingsbridge area.