Look up most police precincts and you'll see this sort of behavior. It's not limited to police, of course; the city government engages in widespread abuse of sidewalks as storage space for vehicles.
And it's not limited to the government, either; I know a number of restaurants that have valet parking where the valets will at best double or triple park cars--including in the bike lane--and at worst park on the sidewalk. All this a few blocks from the police precinct. Sadly, Google's street view cameras came by at the wrong time of day.
This understates the impact of cars on sidewalks, however, as historically many New York streets and avenues had wider sidewalks before we introduced street parking.
In Germany, almost every time a road in the city is rebuilt, more space is allocated to bike lanes and sidewalk, and space is taken away from parking and road for that. This is an example of forward-looking planning. However, it isn't such a nice sight if you are a car owner.
Here in New York the police often park on the sidewalk--fully or partially--to the point the police have painted ranks on them in some precincts.
Here are a few Google Maps examples of our police parking on the sidewalk:
https://goo.gl/maps/4CkLXhajuiG2 https://goo.gl/maps/1i5NMhjJS1v https://goo.gl/maps/2zT2vHyMkk22 https://goo.gl/maps/nikFJgyb9tj https://goo.gl/maps/7ciEWeJd1Wq https://goo.gl/maps/CFtp7oVvomB2 https://goo.gl/maps/Tc3vfhMp5mN2
Look up most police precincts and you'll see this sort of behavior. It's not limited to police, of course; the city government engages in widespread abuse of sidewalks as storage space for vehicles.
And it's not limited to the government, either; I know a number of restaurants that have valet parking where the valets will at best double or triple park cars--including in the bike lane--and at worst park on the sidewalk. All this a few blocks from the police precinct. Sadly, Google's street view cameras came by at the wrong time of day.
This understates the impact of cars on sidewalks, however, as historically many New York streets and avenues had wider sidewalks before we introduced street parking.