Trader Joe’s Cries ‘Foul’
Councilmember Bill De Blasio has pushed through 11th-hour April 1st legislation mandating “Sidewalk User Fees” on major thoroughfares in Cobble Hill and Park Slope.
“There hasn’t been one day when our office hasn’t received irate phone calls about these stroller mamas hogging up the sidewalk,” he told McBrooklyn after the successful passage of the last-minute legislation.
“I just said, ‘What the hell,’” he admitted. “I don’t know about you, but I’m just sick of it. It’s especially bad in front of bars and pubs – where little kids really don’t belong anyway.”
De Blasio attached the measure to Congestion Pricing legislation recently approved by the Council. “Technically, this thing’s a slam-dunk,” he said. “We’re putting up video cameras all over Court Street and 5th Avenue anyway.”
Strollers will be required to have a mini-transponder attached to either axle. Parents and others pushing a stroller will be charged $5 on any day when the stroller enters an A5K density zone. The fee would suffice for the entire day, De Blasio said, “So they might as well go shopping, drinking – the whole shooting match – the same day,” he said.
A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s said the company was not happy with the concept.
“We’d like to be seen as a stroller-friendly zone,” he said.
April Fools!
Awful of me, I know, but part of me wanted this to be true!
ReplyDeletepls. dont give billy the d any ideas: today strollers, tomorrow height restrictions.
ReplyDeleteThe crazy thing is, is that DeBlasio would proabably poll this idea before dismissing it.
ReplyDeletePeople...check today's date...april fools!
ReplyDeleteHa! That's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteAnd I was hoping too! Meanwhile I don't like congestion pricing. It's going to screw up our neighborhoods. Some of the congestion from Manhattan will be here. . .
ReplyDeleteCongestion pricing started as a good idea but will be whittled down by the exceptions that still don't make sense. For example, apparently "low-income" drivers would be exempt from driving into Manhattan. What is low income? And if you are low-income why would you drive a car (gas, parking, cost of car etc) to a job that still makes you low-income? Would not you be a little higher income if you took mass transit? Would the "low-income" driver get a special plate?
ReplyDeleteAnd the whole NJ thing...dont' get me started...
Of course its an April Fools joke! Bill De Blasio is a good guy and has done a lot of good things for the neighborhood, and deserves his chance at making Brooklyn a better place for us all---stroller folks or not!
ReplyDeletei dont think so deblasio staffer!
ReplyDelete