February 16, 2007
Cold-Hearted Bloomberg Enforces Parking Rules
Wednesday's icy snow was a big hassle all around, but drivers were the ones making the most complaints after the city refused to suspend alternate side of the street parking rules. Usually during snowstorms, the alternate side of the street parking is suspended, knowing that some cars may be buried under snow from plows and that it can be hard or drivers to dig their cars out. This time around, however, alternate side of the street parking was in effect and many drivers were ticketed with $65 summons. When asked about the outcry, Mayor Bloomberg said, classically failing to understand the issues of his constituents, "This was not a lot of snow. It was easy to move your car. I don't like to get up early in the morning and have to do anything either. I'd like to sleep in, too. But it was the right thing to do."
Um, Mr. Mayor, please! You're Mayor and a billionaire - and we doubt your car isn't parked outside your Upper East Side townhouse. Also, in the same press conference, the Mayor said that the freezing rain made it hard for the Department of Sanitation to keep the roads clear - how can it be safe for people to drive on unplowed roads while looking for new parking? Even towing vehicles at airports were so frozen they were stuck! The Mayor claimed that keeping alternate side of the street parking was helpful for plowing, but that's sort of circular logic.
The Mayor currently refuses to dismiss the tickets, but a Bloomberg administration source tells the Post it was a big mistake not to suspend parking rules. The Daily News has an editorial: "Give us break, Mr. Mayor. Order the tickets shredded. Start a bonfire with 'em. Show you do not lack the same vital organ as the Tin Man and you recognize the rare occasion when you've made a boneheaded call."
Speaking of driving safely in this weather, a driver was injured when a huge chunk of ice flew off another car and through his own windshield while in Brooklyn (the picture is nutty). The driver only suffered minor injuries; he just wants people to clean off their cars before driving.
Update: The Mayor announced that parking tickets related to alternate side of the street parking issued today and yesterday will be excused!
Photograph of an icy commute in Queens by joshboussel on Flickr
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I think Bloomies gotten a little high on his popularity ratings. This a- hole hasn't had to worry about moving his car, let alone dig it out of a snow bank, since 1964.
Jeez you big cheapos - park your car in a garage or get rid of it.
on the street i live on, there were ample oppurtunities to move your car wednesday morning/thursday morning. if you didn't want to, you probably deserved the ticket.
"oh, it's so hard to move my car, blah, blah, blah..."
if owning a car in the city is such a pain in the ass, here's a simple solution: sell it and take the subway instead. my wife has a car, and i'll admit it sucks, but we move it everyday and don't complain.
You anti-car guys are totally missing the point. Get off your self-righteous pedestrian soapboxes already.
It may seem like a silly thing but Bloomy is showing a particularly cavalier attitude with this one. First of all, does he even own a car? How would he know how easy it to move you car every day much less when it is encased in a few inches of ice. And secondly, $65 is a lot of money to some people. Don't assume that just because someone in this town owns a car they have a lot of money.
Usually I have to agree with him because he calls a lot people on the petty BS they complain about. But I have to agree with all those poor car owners on this on. It could have been such an easy thing to do but Bloomberg really isn't taking the little guy into account on this one.
bloomberg is being a dick recently
You shouldn't have a car here. That's what public transportation is for. I actually don't think they should allow parking on most streets anyway.
I spent an hour last night trying to dig our car out of the ice, and just about cleared the exhaust pipe and the drivers door.... not a chance in getting the whole thing out... I should have called NY1's Roger Clark to come and help out.
Still, a $45 dollar parking fine every now and again is still much cheaper than parking in a garage.
Darn... I need the car Saturday morning....
bloomberg is right, stop whining, you babies. you get up every other day to move your car, suddenly it snows 4 inches and you think you're entitled to a snow day.
Why is it that everytime it snows people get stupid?
a) Gotta move your car to get the snow out of the way. Why do you have a car if you're letting it sit around on the street anyway? I have a car to go to work. Therefore, the car was moving anyway, regardless of alternate side. What's the matter with everyone? Stop complaining.
b) PLEASE CLEAN OFF YOUR CAR! Not just your windshield. ALL OF IT. As you can see, it's really dangerous.
I hate just about everyone until this snow and ice melts. (Including pedestrians who jay walk and just assume that you'll stop for them. Cars slide on ice, honey... if i squish your dumb little doggy don't cry about it to me. BE MORE CAREFUL STUPIDS.)
-okki in queens >:(
all of this also applies to parts of the city that aren't Manhattan; sometimes it is necessary to have a car out there, moreso than in Manhattan. And sometimes, it's necessary in Manhattan as well. I'm a huge proponent of public transportation, don't get me wrong, but thinking that it's never okay to have a car is just narrow-minded.
That being said, it might not have been a lot of snow, but at least in my neighborhood, it does make it impossible to find a new spot to put your car. You can't move it if there's nowhere else to put it.
And I'm surprise Gothamist didn't mention the part where the mayor doesn't insist on a crack down on illegal parking permits that the city issues, especially considering it's a story Gothamist does often mention.
Bloomberg didn't become mayor and billionaire by sleeping in. Get your lazy asses up and move your car.
Seriously, it wasn't a lot of snow. Get over it.
Bloomberg has been a dickhead lately,
he was snippy at a reporter again, with sanitation workers laughing with him.
Like he'd ever be with sanitation workers. Please.
and it's not manhattan, it's the out boroughs who gets the tickets because they didn't plow the side streets.
I'm originally from the Syracuse area. In the town I'm from, when it snows you're not allowed to park on streets. If you do, the plows may just plow into your car and they won't stop. And, when it snows, people dig their car out regardless of what is on top of it. Look at the people in Oswego County now...they got 10 feet of snow in a week and are digging their cars out and going places. All we got is a few inches and everyone acts like a bomb got dropped on their cars.
I live in an outer borough of the city and don't have a car. And, look at me, I'm still alive. Cars are pointless in the city...they cost too much, are a pain to maintain, and are impossible to park near your home. Plus, although the MTA has its problems, we have a big network of public transportation. With the TransitCheck I get from work, my monthly commuting costs are only about $45. I'd rather pay $45 per month and spend a little more time getting from point A to point B than pay hundreds of dollars to get there a little quicker.
Let Bloomberg give tickets to car owners, especially if you're one of those people who never car-pools and only drives it when you have to move it to the other side of the street when they clean the streets.
You're all right. It wasn't a lot of snow. It was a lot of ICE! It's a completely different thing. maybe you should try digging a car out of a casing of ice and you'd be a little more sympathetic.
You're all as ignorant about this as Bloomberg.
Don't like the rules? Can't handle the winter? Then get in your gas-guzzler and move to Phoenix.
If the airports were shut down for that long, the Mayor should take that as a cue as to how bad it got.
But what does he care in his cashmere sweaters and fur lined slippers sipping his brandy by the fire.
I can't wait for the next Con Ed Blackout and the mayor coming out saying , it wasn't so bad and Con Ed did a great job.
As the previous poster mentioned, this isn't snow we're shoveling- it's thick, heavy, ice.
The purpose of alternate side is for the street cleaners to do their job- with all the snow on the side of the roads, their job this week is useless.
Did anyone actually see a street sweeper this week?
it may not have been a lot of snow, but when that snow is plowed to the side, it piles up along the cars. And then it gets covered with ice, which doesn't melt because it's been so freezing. Try digging out of that with a snow shovel.
Bloomberg doesn't do anything for himself, so what the fuck does he know?
You're all right. It wasn't a lot of snow. It was a lot of ICE! It's a completely different thing. maybe you should try digging a car out of a casing of ice and you'd be a little more sympathetic.
You choose to have a car; you have to follow the laws. I'm not sympathetic that your decision to have a car in a largely unnecessary car environment has inconvenienced you when the winter weather arrives.
that's what you get for driving a car!
i agree with upstate jimmy. i also live in an outer borough. only reason we have a car is because my wife commutes to work outside of the city and can't get there any other way. we use the subway for everything else.
we never have a problem with alternate side of the street parking because the car has to be moved for her to get to work anyway. and yes, that means i get up early and shovel the snow off the car so she can drive. and yes, it is a pain in the ass, but that's the price of owning a car.
quit complaining and ride the subway if you can't be responsible for your vehicle.
In the interest of civic responsibility I moved my car this morning and I can only guess that the snow plows were performing some other life improving activity because they failed to show up and plow the vacated side of the street. It is still a filthy grey morass of inpenetrable ice. Thanks city! Have some more of my money and time. Anti-car folks you may now stick your heads back up your asses. Good morning.
this was not a lot of snow people. 2-4 inches of wet snow, mostly rain and before 11am there was plenty of time to move cars.
it wasn't ice until thursday morning (.025") which by then your car should have been moved anyway.
MT: Ignorant? I did dig the car out of the ice & snow, and I'm not at all sympathetic. Move your car and quit complaining.
P.S. I'm not a fan of Bloomberg, but I do believe in taking care of that for which I'm responsible.
When did it rain??????
The temps were below freezing almost all this week?
How could there been rain?
Who'd stop the rain????
The mayor's a dickhead, per usual. I hope he chokes on his caviar.
I apologise, I hope his private jet doesn't get de-iced properly and crashes on his weekly trip to the bahamas. or wherever he goes.
I'm down with most of the anti-car sentiments here in principle(even #7 and #9 to a degree) but a couple of points:
Bear in mind that the yuppie scum SUV class of driver can probably afford a garage and therefore didn't have to deal with this nonsense. But the outerboro boy who just uses his car on the weekend to run errands and such, or who keeps it for the occasional out of town soiree is the one who got screwed here. I've had a car off and on in the city since Koch and I can never remember the parking not being suspended after a snowstorm.
So if you're going to change the rules like this, maybe say something ahead of time? Like, in the fall, as the city is stockpiling salt and sand, say, "We're not going to be suspending parking unless it's truly dire" or some such, rather than wait until there's two inches of ice all over everything and sending the brownies (now I am dating myself!) out in force.
And that is the difference between being a policy-changer and being a total jerk. If you have your reasons for changing the way things are done, fine, put it out there and make it known to all. Stand up for it and stand behind it. But don't be a jerk about it and play "gotcha" with the PVB. That's when people start thinking "well, the ciyt's gotta pay for all this sand and salt somehow..."
The mayor just decided to void out the tickets given yesterday. He mentioned it on his radio show.
Stay tuned.
I think the point is that (in my neighborhood, anyway) no services were offered that justify the fines.
"Why did you give me a ticket?" "Because you didn't move your car - we need to clean up the snow!" "But you didn't clean up the snow, you just gave out tickets." "Whatever, bitch, pay up!"
#30 - nice tip. hope it's true!
Tim N. needs the "yuppie scum SUV class" to keep paying taxes so he can brag about how the blue states pay more in taxes.
OK, kids. You're going to have to dig your car out of the icy/snow at some point. Might as well do it ASAP so that the streets can be properly cleared.
Keep a solid aluminum Voile pack shovel in the trunk. In the ten years that I owned one in Minnesota, it paid for itself ($40) dozens of times over in terms of saved tickets, aggrevation, and time.
Besides, they're handy for bumping-off those annoying parking cops and disposing of their bodies.
Funny how posts about cars always bring out the car-hating Manhattanites and transplants who dont have a clue. Do I sense a little jealousy?
Dont forget - alternate side did not only remain in effect on your block, it remained in effect in parts of BK and queens where the nearest subway may be a mile or more away. For the carless - ever wonder what all those people with cars are doing? Maybe they are ferrying kids around, going to work, carrying more than 2 bags of groceries, going to see friends, doing things outside of their neighborhood, etc. And maybe they are doing those things a hell of a lot easier than they could if they were tied to the subway, buses and taxicabs like you are. If you can't get the logic of why people own cars here you are either still very green or are just totally clueless.
But to the credit of the clueless - cluelessness is part of being a New Yorker, no? If new yorkers (i.e. Mayor Mike) were understanding about the fact that their neighbors have different needs and priorities, alternate side would have just been cancelled and we wouldnt even be having this discussion.
Tickets for yesterday and today will be forgiven.
Wednesday tickets stands.
Reason being Ice and snow made it difficult to get car out. and, complaints made to 311.
I am (as somebody put it) an "outerboro boy who just uses his car on the weekend to run errands and such, or who keeps it for the occasional out of town soiree."
Whether or not people should have cars in the city is besides the point. The fact is that Bloomberg was a complete shmuck on this one. I looked at my car today and it was behind two feet of plowed black ice. The morning after the snowstorm, I saw a street sweeper going down 82nd st. in Queens. The trash it is supposed to sweep was buried under the ice, mostly, so the brushes were just polishing the ice. It might as well have been a zamboni.
1) these things don't move ice off the street, therefore, there's no use in wasting their gas, costing the city money, etc.
2) not everyone is ABLE to shovel ice on command (out here, a lot of elderly people keep cars). So, chances are, ticket or not, many of the cars would not be moved.
3) If people can't move their cars, that means few spaces will open up, leading to extra cars driving around on the ice, endangering pedestrians, causing traffic to build up, all so that the street sweepers could operate and accomplish nothing.
QED, Bloomberg is a smug, out-of-it, dull-witted wanker, and his original statement is literally one of the stupidest, most out-of-touch things I can recall hearing from a New York politician.
Did anyone actually see a street sweeper this week?
I leave my house at the same time every morning, and there's always a street sweeper on a particular corner taking a coffee break. Even if I leave a few minutes before or afterwards, I'll see him at some point before or afterwards. I haven't seen a sign of the guy in 2 days, but I do think he was there Wednesday.
Rest assured, I'm not jealous of anyone who owns a vehicle here. If I REALLY wanted a car, I'd have one. Though I totally understand the need for cars if people have kids, live off the train areas, or for other various reasons, I think some people could definitely do without. Like, every kid in his late teens and early 20s doesn't need a ridiculous bass-farting penis machine to prove his manliness.
On another note, I'm always amused when a new crop of first-time winterers start trying to spin their wheels because they don't know how to drive in snow. People...kitty litter! Sand! Cardboard! Honestly, I think snow driving should be a required test to get your license.
Actually, I went to school in Binghamton, NY, and have upstate friends, so I know about digging out cars, and I have the kitty litter, and the cardboard, and the whole shmeer -- but because I have a small gas-efficient car rather than a tall, heavy SUV, and because my car tires were encased in about five inches of ice (as of Thursday, when I first tried to move it), I finally gave up this morning after several tries and left an apologetic note for the cops.
Some of us in the outer boroughs do need cars, for things like visiting elderly relatives and getting to places badly served by public transportation. I am responsible for my vehicle, but when I am placed in a very difficult situation merely because our mayor suffered a fit of pique, I'm going to resent it.
Alternate street parking is in place so that streets can be cleaned. Suspending it makes sense when snow prevents street cleaning machines from doing any actual cleaning, which was the case yesterday and today. Since alternate side parking regulations were not suspended, I was assuming that plows would take that chance to plow the snow on the sides of the streets. That did not happen, but parking tickets were given out. This was a poor decision and even a worse execution.
This is not about being lazy to move one's car; this is about how much of nonsense the decision not to suspend alternate side parking regulation was.
Alternate street parking is in place so that streets can be cleaned. Suspending it makes sense when snow prevents street sweepers from doing any actual sweeping, which was the case yesterday and today. Since alternate side parking regulations were not suspended, I was assuming that plows would take that chance to plow the snow on the sides of the streets. That did not happen, but parking tickets were given out. This was a poor decision and even a worse execution.
This is not about being lazy to move one's car; this is about how much of nonsense the decision not to suspend alternate side parking regulation was.
He doesn't care about the city or the people just ticketing as demonstrated by his decision to not suspend alternate side of the street parking.
For Bloomberg, it all comes down to giving out tickets and making money for the city. Doubling fines and increasing the amount of metermaids. Ever since Bloomberg was in office, that is the only thing you see. He has done crap for the city except ruin the quality of life. His time should have been over with the last election.
Its about money. Its about giving out tickets.
Bloomberg has done nothing for the city except double fines and bring on more meter maids. Sometimes there are like two or three sweeping a single city block. Hire some real cops to fight crime instead.
Bloomberg doesn't care about the city or its residents, he running the city like a business...money, money, money while the quality of life in the city is taking a hit.
His time should have been up with the last election.
Just because your street was plowed adequately does not mean that everyone's was, especially in the boroughs. My neighborhood is a mess, people ARe moving their cars - but are they coming to plow the sides of the street? No! And the slush is becoming icy and it's becoming more difficult to move cars.
For the rest of you morons who cannot see beyond your own limited reality, there are people whose jobs REQUIRE cars. I know, your typing job your daddy got you doesn't mean you need to do anything more than walk from the apartment he also pays for to the subway. but there are real people who live in this city with actual realities. They don't read Gothamist.
Aren't the alt-side parking rules for street sweeping? Were the streets being swept those days?
*If the airports were shut down for that long, the Mayor should take that as a cue as to how bad it got.*
The airports weren't shutdown, there were delays.
But I'll remember that on a windy day when there are air delays, I will stand proud and tall and not move my car, based on air delays and then I'll bitch an moan about how the mayor of new york is a dickhead and how he lives all bigtime with his cashmere sweaters and cavier.
Side note to the oblivious: cashmere sweaters and cavier aren't all that cushy... but to each his own.
Alternate-side parking tickets cost $115, not $65. That is a MAJOR difference. And that's why people are up in arms.
"For the rest of you morons who cannot see beyond your own limited reality, there are people whose jobs REQUIRE cars. I know, your typing job your daddy got you doesn't mean you need to do anything more than walk from the apartment he also pays for to the subway. but there are real people who live in this city with actual realities. They don't read Gothamist."
Clearly 11222_res knows all about getting it from Daddy.
FYI, to clarify my first comment: When I said "no cars in the city" I meant Manhattan, not the outer boroughs. Cars can be needful there.
whatever you say edex.
shutdown or delay, nothing was going on at the airport due to the weather.
and next time a wind advisory is issued, I hope a street sign decapitates you while you're standing still.
oh, while your noshing on domestic caviar since it's not so cush anymore, anyone can afford it.
x3, the mayor is still a dickhead.