4 Responses

1. Reb Simcha,
   It is wonderful to stop the service charge being applied if someone wants to pay online a parking ticket, but what about stopping the harrassment of the ticket givers. They are like flies attacking cars and vans that are waiting to pull into a legal spot while someone is going to their car and leaving. They do not let the drivers park and they give a swipe with their new machines and instatntly produce a double parking (115.00 ) ticket when there was no right to do it. Also they now stand on the corners ( 4 brownies, as they used to be called) and they wait for the red light and anyone sticking in the intersection even slightly is swiped and they give a ticket for being in the intersection at a red light.
   It has gotten to the point that we have made it easier to have a ticket given by giving these traffic cops a machine instead of them having to have to write it manually which made them think first and the traffic cops are such people that if a driver stops at abus stop or hydrant and helps his elderly father who needs help getting out and in to the vehicle, they would run over a give a ticket . Where is the decency and the logic to that. Officers no matter what, should use their brain and be helpful and courteous and want to help people as they are supposedly the ones that are in charge of “QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES”. They ar eworking fo rthe city and should be helping the people of NYC not harrassing them and only thinking ” Let us write as many tickets as possible whether or not they are legitimate or not.
   It is almost impossible to fight a ticket to day since the ALJ’s (Judges in Parking Violations) do not even look at the letters or the statement of proof for the tickets in questions and just send back “GUILTY”. Today you have a better chance of just going on line and having the city give you a discount on line for paying if you decide to take it. It is normally 15.00 to 25.00 off the ticket as they made some new rules recently as reported on YWN . Anyway – Thank you Rabbi Simcha Felder for all the work you continue to do and the 2.00 off is certainly something but maybe you can do more by having these swarming officers be taught that writing a ticket is only necessary after taking steps of helping the drivers or having the drivers move, etc etc etc

2. Ya gotta laugh (or cry) when you see CPR (Courtesy Professionalism Respect) on the side of the police cars! Most cops have none of those! Particularly those traffic agents are like little vermin just waiting for a chance to swarm. It is clear that their goal is NOT to stop illegal or dangerous behavior, its just to bleed us and make more money for the city. They would NOT be happy if no one violated the rules, they would be miserable! This city is becoming more and more unlivable every day. Bloomberg thinks this is a smart way to bring in revenue, but he is pushing the middle class out of here!!!

3. New jersey does the same. Instead of encouraging people to renew registration on line, they charge an additional fee. So people use the mail and pay $.44 cents instead of $2 costing the DMV more money to process. That’s government for you.

   Blame yourselves… You voted these guys in

4. The trick that I learned from my Uncle is as follows:
   When getting a new car, simply make a scratch in both bar codes of the registration sticker, this way it won’t swipe and they will need write the whole thing out.
   By that time hopefully the light has changed and you can leave without getting a ticket.
   Let’s face it, Most of these meter maids are extremely lazy and do not want to go through the strenuous work of writing it out.
   In the words of my uncle:
   “You wanna give me a ticket, You gotta work for it.”
   Just don’t make the scratch too obvious and not too small.
   Just hope not too get charged with destrution of government property or something like that.