Following up on earlier letters, I provide photographs of Public Safety vehicles parked at a fire hydrant, and note that Public Safety Chief James Fry wrote to me that, "My officers... are trained and kept abreast of the laws they enforce," and that New York City traffic law states (title 7, article 32, paragraph 3, b, 1), "No person shall stop, stand, or park a vehicle within 15 feet of a fire hydrant except when such vehicle is attended by a licensed operator... seated in the front seat..."

The PSD vehicles in these photographs are unattended. I would be interested in knowing whether the Public Safety Officers who parked them gave themselves summonses, in accordance with the familiarity with the law of which Mr. Fry wrote.

Mr. Mircea Nicolescu’s letters in the January 13 issue of The Wire describe his confrontation with a Public Safety officer when Mr. Nicolescu parked his car in front of Island House to unload groceries. While I sympathize with Mr. Nicolescu’s position, the New York City Traffic Rules indicate that the officer had the right to ask him to move his vehicle.

Section 4.08 (e) (2) of the Traffic Rules states that a vehicle may stand at a hydrant if the operator remains in the driver’s seat prepared to move the vehicle at the approach of fire engines. This would seem to support Mr. Nicolescu’s position. However, the rule goes on to say: "provided further, that the operator shall immediately remove the car from alongside the fire hydrant when instructed to do so by any member of the police, fire, or other municipal department acting in his/her official capacity."

I certainly agree that Public Safety officers should be considerate of Island residents who need to park temporarily to load or unload their cars – especially since they generally ignore parking or even double parking on the Eastwood side of the street. On innumerable occasions I have seen Public Safety officers walk or drive past cars that are parked or double parked on the Eastwood side, including directly under a "No Standing" sign, without taking any action. That may be because their own reserved spaces are not being used.

However, it is clear that the Public Safety officer had the right to ask Mr. Nicolescu to move his car.

The full text of the New York City Traffic Rules is on the New York City Department of Transportation’s web site at http://nyc.gov/html/dot/pdf/trafrule.pdf. The rule that I have quoted is on page 26 of that file.

The January 13 WIRE edition’s letters between Mr. Nicolescu and Public Safety Director James Fry (I know neither gentleman) compel me to relate that when a radio cab (with a uniformed driver) delivered me and two friends, with ample baggage, from JFK to the front of Rivercross, a female uniformed PS officer blocked us from the curb pointing at the fire hydrant and yelling "Can’t you see that... keep going."

I have not researched the law, but, if Mr. Nicolescu’s citation about attended vehicles being permitted in front of hydrants is correct, the officer is both legally and practically wrong and the following statement by Director Fry is one of the dumbest things ever issued by a public official: He wrote, "I cannot think of any reason why a private citizen would be in possession of any official information that is not already known to individuals of agencies which perform such functions." Does that mean, If we don’t know the Law it doesn’t exist? and/or Don’t tell us what the Law is, that’s our job! and/or You have no right to look things up in the Law?

I am a lawyer but speechless.

I want to bring to your attention a common error I see repeated in The Wire: that the East River is an estuary. An estuary is the tidal part of a river, i.e., the area near the sea. The Hudson, which is a real river, is an estuary with brackish water, up to Albany. What we call the East River, which runs from Upper New York Bay to Long Island Sound, and connects to the Harlem River, is a tidal channel, somewhat like the English Channel, but comparatively inland.

The strong tides and currents, the second-strongest in the world, gave the river here the name Hell Gate. Prisons were built here in the 19th Century because swimming to escape was impossible. The currents are the result of the collision of the waters of the bay, sound and Hudson.

Island dwellers should get it right.

Robert Furman