BAY RIDGE – Relief from traffic ticketing excess and abuse is just around the corner, declared the city’s top traffic, enforcer, speaking at a merchants breakfast meeting of the Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District.

“New instructions have been given to our traffic agents. The way we issue summonses will be different and we ask our agents to be patient,� said Frank Sepulveda, the NYPD’s director of traffic enforcement for the city. “By the end of this month all our agents should have the new training. We will look at how we can handle difficult summons situations differently.�

Introduced by Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez, 68th Precinct commander, who told of the community’s ever-lowering crime rate, Sepulveda spoke on Wednesday morning at the BID’s meeting at the Bay Ridge Manor, fielding BID merchants’ gripes about unfair ticketing.

He mentioned that a new NYPD Integrity Patrol Officer, ICO Sergeant Corda, has been assigned to the enforcement region covering Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. “Have a problem? Call me at (212) 268-3427 or Sgt. Corda at (718) 345-1800.�

On problems, businessman Dan Texeira led the complaint barrage. “I stopped my car to let off my son. Just then a traffic agent cut off in front of my car and gave me a ticket.

“That wasn’t right,� said Sepulveda.

BID Executive Director Patrick Condren told of a situation a year ago: “I witnessed a well-known friend and neighbor going up to a traffic agent giving an unfair ticket. The guy screamed and cursed at her.� “The training you spoke of will take a long time,� said Fifth Avenue pharmacist Habib, vice president of Arab American Association of NY. “Manners are the easiest way to handle these situations, but we face the anger of the agents and it escalates into shouting matches.�

Mike Long, longtime Bay Ridge businessman and NYS Conservative Party chair, asked how many summonses are written daily. Sepulveda said the average is 30. “We have 28 agents assigned here on a daily basis. A new class of 185 agents is graduating on October 25, and they will hit the streets here in January.�

“I met with Baker and Nelson, the two area traffic managers,� said Councilman Vincent Gentile, known for his leadership in the city on traffic ticket troubles and solutions. “I mentioned the famous NYPD motto of ‘courtesy, professionalism and respect’ and that it goes both ways, and that we don’t see that done as often with traffic agents.�

Since early this year, Gentile noted, parking is permitted at T-intersections, which dominate street corners along Shore Road in Bay Ridge. Yet, he said, agents continue to unlawfully ticket cars legally parked there, unaware of the new regulations.

Gentile exclaimed, “You are allowed to drop off or pick up somebody without being ticketed! And if you are waiting a moment for a car to pull out of a parking spot, you are not double parked!�

On other BID Matters, Condren asked Gentile to help with local business promotion by having the S-79 Staten Island Mall bus display “Bay Ridge Shops� on its return trip from the mall to its Fourth Avenue at 86th Street turn-around bus stop.

BID President Jim Clark announced the BID’s first pre-holiday Fifth Avenue shopping season sidewalk sale on Saturday, November 14, and told of “Santa and his happy elf� who will be on the avenue with free candy on Saturdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19. He also urged merchants to utilize the BID’s web site at www.bayridgebid.com and to list their business web sites there.

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