Resident Asks for Enforcement

Editor:

Are we at “the tipping point?”

Today, as usual, as I was walking from the ferry in Red Hook to my car. I had to walk in the road around a delivery truck parked on the sidewalk. As luck would have it, I was walking in the road beside a policeman, who was also walking to his car. I asked him why he did not ticket the truck for parking on the sidewalk. He politely responded that he did not have his ticket book. We got back on the side walk and then had to walk around a car parked on the sidewalk. I told him I understood that if I was hit by a car while I was walking in the road around the parked car it would be my fault. He said I was correct. He said be sure to look both ways, which I thought was very thoughtful. I asked why the police do not ticket cars that are parked illegally and his response was that the judge would just throw it out of court.

I told him that from the end of the sidewalk at American Yacht Harbor to the parking lot at the dumpster, which is almost a half a mile away, cars are parked on both sides of the road so everyone that parks in the parking lot has to walk in the road to get to their car. I told him Ivanna Eudora Kean High School is along this road and it is impossible for many hundreds of kids to get to school every day without walking in the road. I asked him if it will take a child getting hit and seriously hurt before a side walk is constructed in this area. He said probably. I asked him what I could do to help the situation and he said write to the paper.

Governor John deJongh, will you please construct a sidewalk to this school, and will you ask your police department to ticket cars and trucks parked on the side walk?

Thank you,
B. Greg Miller