The Mercedes-Benz S600 sedan is the luxury carmaker’s most expensive. The 2010 S600 has a starting price of $150,000. The 2005 model ranged between $75,000 – $125,000 when new. It is the top of the line. The state of the art. About as expensive (if not more so) than the median home price in Western New York.
Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. is the majority leader of the New York State Senate. He attained that position after helping to hold the senate hostage for a few months last year, and collecting perks and promises in exchange for his return to the Democratic fold. He is the head of a “non-profit” health care business that paid him a salary of $460,000 in 2007, but is delinquent on withholding taxes. Although he represents a district in the Bronx, it is common knowledge that his real home is in Mamaroneck, in Westchester County.
Pedro Espada is scumbag di tutti scumbags. A phony, lying, manipulative, self-centered, power-hungry boil on the ass that is Albany politics.
His reason for being is to enrich himself on the public teat.
The Senate Majority Leader parked his Mercedes S600 in front of a fire hydrant in a neighborhood in the Bronx that has had some tragic fires lately, displaying some sort of parking permit, which, regardless of its validity, does not permit him to block a hydrant under any circumstances.
Aside from the fact that parking in front of a fire hydrant is illegal (for everyone) for a purpose, and aside from the fact that deliberately hindering the work of first responders is a scumbag thing to do, this is emblematic of a certain subset of the political class in New York State. This is not the first time I’ve posted about political hacks abusing parking rules that apply uniformly to all, and conduct like this conveys a holier-than-thou, more-equal-than-others mindset that certain apparatchiks and hackerati have in this state.
Here’s what I wrote about the practice in Buffalo in 2005:
All of these illegally parked vehicles have one thing in common – the imprimatur of officialdom. Whether we’re talking about a dark blue Plymouth minivan (AZR-6294)with a placard that reads: “Mahoney State Office Building Parking : 60th District” or a Ford pickup (CYX-6137), sporting a huge “Brown for Mayor” sign on the side, or a gold Toyota Camry (BNS-9769) there for “Official Use: Office of the Comptroller”, or a green Jeep Cherokee (6DJ-104) with a placard that reads: “Official Use: NYS Executive Department”, it’s bad form.
A white Ford SUV (DGE-2198) purports to be doing official Comptroller business has been spotted, as has a Honda Sedan (AKR-6606). A Green Chevy Malibu (BVP-6921) has thought nothing of parking illegally, as well as a Black Chevy Trailblazer (APP-3758).
Other placards that have been sighted include: “Official Police Vehicle” and “Official State Senate Business”. Another Trailblazer (1906-AMT) was there for “Official Business – Buffalo City Council.”
Average schmucks who commute in cars downtown don’t enjoy the same privilege.
Yet people who work for us in an official capacity (or, at least, have dash placards that say so), take it upon themselves to act above the law. When they park illegally they’re blocking deliveries, or in some cases blocking the curb-cuts for the handicapped. They obstruct driving lanes on the streets.
Sure, this is petty and not a huge issue in the vast scheme of things, but it underscores a perception that we average folks have of our state and local officials having an arrogant sense of their own power – of entitlement and privilege. Their own personal convenience trumps everyone else’s, and the city’s rules, to boot.
And, by the way, when a non-placarded car tries to pull the same stunt, it gets a ticket while the “official” vehicle remains unmolested.
Is this the kind of “leadership” Buffalo is in for if Senator Brown becomes Mayor Brown?
Five years on, we know that it is. Oh, how it is. In Espada’s case, it’s not unexpected, and it just adds to the ethical failure he is.
What more must this person do before he is prosecuted by a district attorney or by the Attorney General?
The Buffalo Record 
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