A report released last week by the U.S. House Committee on Transportation documents 4k cases where employees in federal vehicles in Washington, D.C. and New York City skipped-out on parking tickets last year, turning their backs on $700k in unpaid fines. “Over one-half of all workers in the southernmost section of Manhattan are government employees,” the report explained. “Essentially, all of lower Manhattan is a free parking lot for government vehicles.” FBI officials told the committee that a thorough investigation failed to yield any suspects for 218 parking infractions. In 2007, D.C. meter maids wrote the Army, Navy and Air Force 158 parking tickets worth $27,840. (None of the recruiters challenged the DC citations due to their “demanding work schedule.”) The report noted that most meter maids ignore federal vehicles because they know there’s no point issuing a citation. “Federal law requires employees to pay parking tickets received on U.S. government vehicles, but… The DC Department of Public Works does not boot or tow government-tagged vehicles, ‘as a matter of long-standing policy.'”
Federal workers were not alone in ignoring parking laws. City workers in Washington and New York also disregarded citations issued by fellow employees. DC government vehicles generated 329 unpaid tickets worth $33,360 while New York city and state vehicles skipped out on paying 2562 tickets worth $490,939.
“As public servants, federal employees should have a heightened sense of responsibility for preserving, protecting, and promoting public safety. Federal employees who use government property, including government vehicles, to break the law are not only abusing their positions but are abusing the public trust,” the committee report concluded.And that’s that.
There is plenty of parking in lower Manhattan. If you have the proper placard on your dash, preferably something from the Mayor’s office, in gold leaf, or something Federal with a nice hologram on it.
The rest of us pay to park. If your placard is high enough, then you can ignore even the “no standing” zones. My personal favorite is the Mercedes Convertible, owned by a very highly placed NY legislator, who parks it at the intersection of 34th and Seventh avenue….nice.
Parking Enforcement Officer, meter attendant, traffic warden (British English), or, derogatorily, a meter Nazi or meter maid for both female and male attendants.
We need more of these:
http://www.metermaids.com/
A municipal vehicle has been sitting in a metered spot in front of my aunt’s building here in Chicago for going on a month. Repeated calls to the Department of Revenue (the dept responsible for ticketing and parking meters….hey at least they don’t lie about their purpose) has done nothing. Calling the police has done nothing. Street sweeper has come through (the rest of us get $50 camera tickets if our cars are parked during the street sweeping hours). The leaves and trash are building up around the tires. Not only does it just sit there, but they don’t feed the meter of course. So the city loses meter money (which I’m sure isn’t much in the scheme of things) but also potentially ticketing people who don’t put money in the meter. The neighborhood loses a parking space.
But what else should we expect? The gov to actually follow the laws they create for the rest of us to follow (in Chicago, nobody can legally own a handgun except police…..and elected officials)? If that car can sit there for a month without feeding the meter, then why shouldn’t I be able to do the same?
She should report an abandoned vehicle :) Or maybe we can bounce it into the middle of the street (watch how quick the police will show up then….)
Jerome10> Another fellow Chicagoan, hello! The Chicago solution depends on who you know and how well you know them. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day the tires of that vehicle have an “accident”
This piece of anecdotal evidence points to real, real, real bad times. I mean real. Really.
If Lower Manhattan is a parking lot for the Feds, the Upper East Side is a parking lot for the diplomatic corps of the rest of the world. Last time it was tried to collect from THOSE scofflaws, if my fading memory serves me right, Manhattan was justabout C7.
Now someone has the nerve to take on NYC, DC, and the Feds? With an FBI probe, and a House Committee????
Signs of abject desperation. So much adoo-doo about not even half a million of unpaid summonses?
Abandon ship!