August 13, 2013
One Comment

Its Summer and scofflaws Abound

Ah yes, the warm afternoons, the cool evening breezes, vacations at the beach, picnics in the park—its summertime and there is another article about millions of uncollected parking tickets. This time its New York City — and the city has $570 million in uncollected fines and penalties — and that’s for the past 8 years. That’s $71 million a year.

I’m confused. Its hard to understand how cities get in this mess. If you look at the ‘top 10’ list from NYC:

Consolidated Dairies, Wallington, NJ – $316,059 for 1,759 tickets
Jetro Holdings, Queens, NY – $308,779 for 1,248 tickets
NMI, New York, NY (Manhattan) – $280,863 for 1,578 tickets
ACS Transportation, Brooklyn, NY – $204,137 for 1,352 tickets
Island Beverage, Teaneck, NJ – $197,589 for 795 tickets
Toyota Motor Credit, Chandler, Ariz. – $183,559 for 1,450 tickets
Sandy’s Plumbing and Heating, New York, NY (Manhattan) – $177,006 for 978 tickets
John Caruso, New York, NY (Manhattan) – $176,821for 872 tickets
Anthony Grady, Brooklyn, NY – $172,250 for 1,404 tickets
P and F Tank Repair, Brooklyn, NY – $171, 574 for 740 tickets

You can see that the top seven are companies — most likely delivery and repair operations. Surely all the urban wizards in NYC can work out a way to get deliveries made and plumbing fixed in their city without having to write tens of thousands of tickets. Put representatives from the Department of Transportation, the City Council, and the delivery companies in a room, and have them work it out.

But what catches the eye are people that run up 872 or 1404 tickets and just seem to ignore the city. Isn’t it possible to tow or boot these cars when the unpaid ticket number reaches a certain point (like say, 5). I’m sure the towing company would love to be able to pick up these cars, hold them for 90 days, and then sell them. The city gets the ticket revenue and the towing company gets the rest.

People were complaining that the signage was confusing in NYC. But the DOT has actually done something about it and has resigned virtually the entire city. So there seems to be no excuse.

Either we have rules or we don’t.

JVH

John Van Horn

One Response

Stewart Farr says:

August 14, 2013 at 08:36

Or they work out a flat rate fee? Say “refundable cap”?
$100K in the hand is better than $300K in the legal system.

Also – “Wallington, N.J.’s Consolidated Dairies, which owes a stunning $316,059 on 1,759 tickets. Grady has bigger problems than tickets, though—the New York Post reports that there’s a sign on his door saying he was evicted last month.”
http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2013/08/two-nyc-men-350-000-unpaid-parking-tickets

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Its Summer and scofflaws Abound

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