FOPS bops city with lawsuit to curb loading-zone plan
“We’ve done everything possible to avoid this action – petitions, testimony, meetings, outreach – to reason with officials,” said Brotman.
Lloyd Brotman, the president of the Friends of Pine and Spruce nonprofit, announced in a regretful tone that FOPS is suing Philadelphia over its plan to revamp parking regulations on Pine and Spruce, and its plan to add concrete barriers to the streets.
“We’ve done everything possible to avoid this action – petitions, testimony, meetings, outreach – to reason with officials,” said Brotman. “Despite progress we’ve made in some quarters, the Mayor’s budget seeks $5M, funds desperately needed for higher municipal priorities, for the concrete barriers.”
FOPS has hired attorney George Bochetto, the fiery advocate who has successfully stopped the city from removing the Christopher Columbus statue from Marconi Park, and is on the verge of finalizing an agreement with the city to return the statue of Frank Rizzo to its rightful owners.
The legal action challenges the city’s right to remove 30% of the parking on Pine and Spruce to create oversized loading zones. FOPS believes the loading zones will increase congestion and pollution, and negatively affect residents.
Bochetto is challenging “Philadelphia’s unlawful and unauthorized attempt to implement sweeping curbside restrictions along Pine and Spruce,” Bochetto said in the suit.
This is part of the fight against the insane recently-passed law to prohibit even momentary stopping in bike lanes.
The bike zealots claim a stopped car in the bike lane creates a danger to bicyclists, although the Philadelphia Police Department was unable to produce any reports of accidents caused by stopped cars.
The city did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
