It’s difficult even to be sane when I comment on this incredible issue. The only thing I can possibly do is award the coveted “Baghdad by the Bay” award to none other than its doppelganger, that city on the Hudson, New York City.
Get this. If you get a parking ticket in one of the Big Apple’s five boroughs, you simply have to contest it, either on line, by mail or in person, and the city will reduce your fine about a third. Period.
No, that’s it. Just contest it and don’t ask for a hearing. Bribery? Well of course. But there is another interesting tidbit. The city of Broadway, The Empire State Building, and Wall Street…hasn’t told anyone about the program. To find out, you have to go contest a ticket.
Well, that bastion of truth and justice, the New York Times, has gotten wind of this and broken the story. Read about it here. The stalwart reporters of the Old Gray Lady, while looking for work, did ask the city about the fact that no one knows about this program. The answer:
“Since this is offered to everyone universally, it was not as necessary” to publicize it, said Owen Stone, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Finance, which runs all parking ticket adjudication programs.
Let’s see if I can parse this for you… You get a parking ticket in NYC, whether you were wronged by the citation writer or not, you simply appeal and get a third reduction in your parking ticket fee, automatically. Yep
Oh and you’ll love the “art” (that’s picture for your non media types) that went with the story. It’s a picture of a car with a bunch of tickets on it and two flat tires. It must have been sitting there for weeks, collecting tickets.
Is the city nuts. Why leave the car there. After the second ticket, it would seem to me to be abandoned and therefore could be towed. There are towing services that would pay the city $50 to come and pick up the car. After all, if no one calls for it in a month they can legally sell it. But not in NYC. It just sits there and parking enforcement officers sidle up and write another ticket. There have to be half a dozen on this car…
To add even more gold leaf clusters on their award, there is a quote from a woman who has gotten “hundreds” of tickets since she has lived in the city. What’s this all about? A person can get “hundreds” of tickets. Doesn’t it reach a point where this becomes at least a felony? This person obviously has enough money to pay her fines so she has singlehandedly turned the NYC parking department into a monthly parking operation. Its just that the fee varies each month, depending on how often she is caught. Sheesh…Well I guess this is expected from a city that is outlawing and taxing fat in food.
Look out San Francisco, New York is catching up on being the capital of parking idiocy…
Another winner of the “Baghdad by the Bay” award for parking incompetence so obvious that even the main stream media takes note.
JVH
