Sudafed For The Roadways

The number of free parking permits for city employees is much bigger than once thought:

The number of government-issued parking permits provided to employees of city agencies is significantly higher than had been estimated by city officials, according to a citywide inventory.

Ordered by Mayor Bloomberg earlier this year as part of a citywide initiative to cut down on the sought-after permits by 20%, the inventory found that city agencies gave out about 142,000 parking permits last year.

“If you had asked me to guess when we started this analysis, I would have said there were between 70 and 80,000,” Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler said. “Placards and permits are necessary for the government to do business, but it has gotten out of hand.”