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Cars Get Parking Tickets – But No Plows

New York Post

Talk about chutzpah! The city yesterday ended its two-week suspension of alternate-side parking rules and slapped drivers with tickets for not moving their cars so plows could clear the snow from curbsides — and then, no plows came through anyway.

Angry drivers complained that while some cars were frozen in place, plows could have swerved around them and cleared the curbs in front of and behind them.

Officials had ordered motorists to move their cars for snow removal and so garbage trucks could pick up trash.

That sent drivers scrambling to dig their vehicles out of the ice and snow that had entombed their vehicles.

Arthur Antman, 69, who lives on East 88th Street on the Upper East Side, freed his car and moved it to a legal spot in time.

Then, he waited for a plow or street sweeper.

He’s still waiting.

“They did nothing!” Antman fumed. “They didn’t come through with a plow! They didn’t come through with a sweeper! The entire block is still covered in snow, and everyone had to move their car!”

But that didn’t stop the city’s ticket agents from coming out in full force.

Raj Saini, who lives on Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens, was nailed with a $45 ticket after he left his car buried in a foot of snow. But the rest of his block remained unplowed.

“I’m angry. There’s no reason for me to get a ticket when my car is stuck!” he said. “I can’t move my car!”

Sanitation said very few of its street sweepers were out because of the lingering snow. They operated only along some already-cleared commercial districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx.

But plows and salt spreaders were busy trying to clear out the curbsides, officials said.

“We’re making every attempt to get to the curbs during the 90-minute sweeping segment for alternate-side parking,” said spokesman Matt Lipani.

He said people had no choice but to move their vehicles.

“You have to move your car during the specified time period or risk a ticket. We are making every effort to get to all of those curbs as encrusted snow and ice conditions allow,” he said.

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10 Comments

  • c.h.

    Saw plenty of tickets in c.h. this morning.

    If i cover my windshield with snow do you think the lazy cop will bother scraping it away to give me a ticket?

  • Not News

    This is the standard operating procedure that we’ve all gotten used. It’s not even news at this point.

  • resident

    This is dog bite man journalism which doesn’t interest anybody. If you write that a traffic/parking cop did a good deed, that would be totally out of the norm and newsworthy. That would be like man bite dog!

  • CH resident

    everyone call 311 and complain then when they see CH is on the most called list they will do something. EVERYONE START CALLING 311 now and call again on Thursday when they mess up again. and why isn’t out Great Vaad doing something ?? let then Organize our own Trucks and lets give some people from OUR community jobs.

  • CALL 311

    Call 311 and complain!!
    lets get everyone to call 311 and complain maybe it will make a difference!!!

    CALL 311 CALL 311 CALL 311 CALL 311 CALL 3111

  • eye witness

    to comment #1 I witnessed, by the big storm, a cop scraping away a corner of the windsheild of a parked car to give an expired inspection ticket! Don’t underestimate the laziness of ny crown heights cops!

  • Zaki Hackner

    You are missing a greater inaction by the Vaad Hakohol and Community Council and that are the mountains of garbage that are not being collected.

    This is not just an inconvenience. It is a health hazard!

    What are they doing for us?!

  • lloyd a cohen

    You should just regard parking tickets as a tax on the privilidge of living in new York and being allowed to dri ve and park there. Next there will be a tax for having snow on your yard The Mayor has to finance his fact finding mission for being President and his agents trip kto Arizona to complain about Arizona honoring the Bill of Rights