So today I got my second NYC parking ticket this month. I was parked in a 100% legal spot, but some asshole decided to write me up anyway. The first ticket was slightly more legitimate but basically unjustified.
Sorry to sound paranoid, but the cars next to mine (which were parked just as legally or illegally) had NY plates and were untouched. My car has 'Jersey plates.
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
(Oh, and please don’t tell me to sue the city or alert the media. Because let’s face reality: The best thing to do is to suck it up and pay.)
Looks like they targeted exactly the right person: a NJ driver who would be less likely to contest. Thank you for your money, proud New Jersian. We need it pretty desperately, you see.
If it’s any consolation, I got a $100 ticket for double parking during alternate side hours near work. Not a single other car that was double-parked on the block got a ticket - only I did. You better believe that I contested that puppy! So what happened? The Administrative Law Judge hearing my case told me it was just too damn bad, I owed the hundred bucks. And I’ve got NY plates.
True enough, but if you’ve had the misfortune to deal with the evil that is alternate side parking you know… EVERYONE who is parked on the side of the street to be cleaned double-parks on the other side during alternate side hours (in my case, from 11 AM to 12:30 PM). The cops usually don’t bother ticketing anyone then unless they violate the (unwritten rules) by a) double-parking and leaving the car unattended before 11 AM, or b) moving their car back to the other side and leaving it unattended before 12 noon. Literally hundreds of people in the neighborhood go through this dance every day but Wednesday.
In my case I really was doing was is usual and customary for the neighborhood, and was the sole recipient on that block of a ticket as a result. But hey, it was the end of the month… guess someone was going to get picked on to help meet the ticket quota for the month, and I was it.
See, the block had a sign in the middle. On one side of the sign, it was “no parking anytime.” On the other side, it was "no parking Tuesday & Friday between 9:00 and 10:30. It was a Wednesday and I was clearly on the safe side of the sign.
I know - but there are more legitimate ways to put the commuter tax back in effect.
“Double parking?” Isn’t that where you park in the middle of the street, blocking the person parked next to you from pulling out of his space? And you want us to sympathize with you? :wally
You’ve obviously never had to deal with alternate side parking, dropzone, because if you did, you would know full well that your car might be blocked in for an hour. Did you miss this part of my follow-up post:
If it was absolutely vital that you move your car from the side of the street that was unaffected by street cleaning that day, then you’d be sure to park at a metered space on Broadway or something instead of on a side street.
As it happens, I was double-parked just behind a “No Parking From Here to Corner” sign, so the guy who was parked between me and the curb would have had no trouble getting out. :wally to you too.