Meter Maids Sticking It to Residential Nabes
While overall crime rates continue to fall around the borough (even in North Brooklyn, where yesterday’s headlines focused on a rise in murders, saw 17 percent fewer robberies in the first 5 1/2 months of 2007), one threat to civilized society apparently continues to grow: scofflaw parkers. In Bay Ridge, parking violations were up 9…
While overall crime rates continue to fall around the borough (even in North Brooklyn, where yesterday’s headlines focused on a rise in murders, saw 17 percent fewer robberies in the first 5 1/2 months of 2007), one threat to civilized society apparently continues to grow: scofflaw parkers. In Bay Ridge, parking violations were up 9 percent through June 10; in Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, 25.9 percent; in Red Hook, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, 4.3 percent; in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, 6.6 percent. “A 25% jump is quite a jump in this community, especially when we have to move cars four times a week for alternate-side parking,” said Jeremy Laufer, district manager of Community Board 7 in Sunset Park. So are people really violating parking laws more than in the past or are the police just thinking more like bank robbers? “Why do they come to Bay Ridge?” asked Bob Cassara, president of the Bay Ridge Community Council. “Because that’s where the money is, and there’s a lot of money in ticketing people.” Exactly: A nice fat middle-class tax hike.
Parking Tickets on the Rise [NY Daily News]
Murder Up in North Brooklyn, Down in South [Brownstoner]
“Why do they come to Bay Ridge?” Is this guy kidding me?
If you park illegally, you get ticketed. What is all this complaining about? It’s one of the reasons I don’t have a car, and yes, I know how hard it is to have kids and groceries and strollers so I don’t criticize those who do own them but to take this up as a cause is just silly. I realize some tickets are more ridiculous than others, but let’s pick our battles folks. Shell out big bucks for a garage if you have to, it’ll save you $$ over time, apparently.
if you’re parking illegally, you get a ticket. of all the ways the city needs to raise fund, this one makes the most sense to me.
ditto throwing out recycling.
I’m not surprised to hear about a 25% jump in Sunset Park. I got a ticket for double parking a few weeks ago. The cops let us do this during alternate-side parking times and that’s what I thought I was doing. It turned out that it was suspended because of a Jewish holiday that I didn’t know about. That ticket cost me $115. Imagine that, something as harmless as this and I get such a large fine. It’s all about the money. It makes me sick, it tarnishes the whole system. All the police cars have a slogan, it says “To serve , To protect”. Maybe they should add ” to financually take advantage of you!”
There are quotas, if not by name then by some other similar system. There is no WAY that nypd traffic (double-parking as they write someone a ticket, because their legs don’t work too well) or meter maids can be so efficient at their job if they just had to clock in the hours.
They should take whatever production incentive system they do have, and transfer it to the brooklyn DMV (management, not workers. It is the managements fault they are so woefully understaffed).
uh, I guess it should be easier to drive a car AND throw away recyclables too? Let’s get rid of all inconvenient laws!
Parking, parking tickets, and the highest iunsurance rates in the country,are the downside of living in Brooklyn. When I moved here these things were compensated by affordable real estate prices. Now that prices are on crack, I just cannot imagine how much longer people will put up with this.
We should have a people’s uprising!
Sort of related, but my building (still a renter, unfortch) in the Slope just received a $25 summons by the DOS for “bags of garbage containing more than 50% recyclables”. I think this will be the first of many FOR many. Are other neighborhoods (rightfully) seeing the Bloomberg’s push for income? lol
I wish they would make it easier to have a car in NYC so more people would buy/drive them. It’s so hard to live in NYC without a car. If this were the midwest or L.A. where it’s easy to walk or take public transportation it would be one thing. We need to get rid of parking regulations and tolls. Cars and other oil-reliant technologies are the wave of the future. Driving them supports the local economy (gas stations) and makes our world a more pleasant place.
First: repeat after me: there are no quotas; there are no quotas; there are no quotas.
Also, ya’ll ever notice if there are a lot of rookie cops in a neighborhood, you see a lot of bullshit tickets pop up? Trucks can go off designated routes, contractor vans can double park but some schmuck who has parked in the same 10′ from a hydrant spot for 20 years… gets a ticket.
Anonymous: what precinct were you in?
wwib