City Hall turns blind eye to parking encroachment

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Cars parked on sidewalk at 145 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo.

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Daniel Sack  — a frequent critic of City Hall indifference, ineptitude and corruption — says the City of Buffalo for years has been allowing the owner of a surface parking lot on Delaware Avenue to charge customers for three spots that sit squarely on city property.

And the Elmwood Village resident says it’s high time the cash-strapped city government stood up for the people’s property rights and claimed their share of the proceeds.

“Every weekday if I drive by 145 Delaware there are cars parked on the sidewalk,” he wrote in an April email to city officials. “Pay2Park is charging people to park illegally.”

Sack says Google’s time machine shows Pay2Park — owned by the family of late developer Mark Croce — has been parking cars on the sidewalk since at least 2007. 

He reckons at $10 a day, five days a week, Pay2Park has collected $140,850 in fees for parking on property it doesn’t own. He also figures the city missed out on $563,400 in parking tickets it could have issued to the illegally parked cars.

Sack has been banging this drum with the city’s parking commissioner and lawmakers since January. A private company has been using public property to make money, he told them in a series of emails, while exposing the city to legal liability in the event of property damage or personal injury. 

He sent maps and photos that clearly illustrate the encroachment. A city surveyor confirmed his contention, according to an email Sack sent Parking Commissioner Raymond Wagner.

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Parking spots left of red line are on public property.

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Wagner in February advised Sack to register his concerns with the city’s 311 citizen complaint line. 

Sack did that and was advised the lot had been “ticketed and patrolled.”

So he filed a Freedom of Information request with the city asking for all parking tickets issued since January for “vehicles that have parked on the sidewalk in front of 145 Delaware Avenue,” as well as fines paid. The city produced no record of any tickets or fines.

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Wagner finally met with Sack in late May to discuss the matter. Subsequently, in early June, Wagner told Sack his staff had drafted a cease-and-desist letter, which was awaiting review by the city’s lawyers and the Department of Permits and Inspections.

Sack replied that Wagner’s department could make the city some money right now, while the cease-and-desist letter winds its way from one desk to another.

Just ticket the cars, he wrote.

“Ticketing today’s illegally parked cars should get Pay2Park’s attention when the car owners complain to Pay2Park,” he wrote. “Let Pay2Park pay their customers’ tickets.”

Wagner did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment for this story.

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