Alternate Side

bigguy

I called 311 this morning and it said that alternate side was in effect. I ran outside, and... no one was moving. So I left my car there all morning without incident. I called again just to make sure I wasn't crazy, and got the same thing - alternate side in efect. What's the deal?

smokin joe

you got lucky.

NYT, February 15, 2007
With Cars Snowed In, Drivers Lament Tickets
By MARIA NEWMAN

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the city’s decision not to suspend its alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules even after some residents complained that their cars were ticketed for illegal parking when snow plows left them buried in mounds of snow and unable to be moved.

The mayor said that the city’s biggest priority was to clear the streets.

“We want to get the snow and the ice off the roads as quickly as possible so that emergency vehicles can get through, so that you can get to work, so that the kids can get to school,” the mayor said today. “We’ll all do it together, rather than griping. We’ll be better off.”

But asking New Yorkers not to gripe about anything was like asking for mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich. Highly unlikely.

Angry residents called the city’s complaint line, 311, to gripe about the tickets. They called their local television stations. They wailed on blogs.

more of this here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/nyregion/15cnd-parking.html

alafairnadia

Smokin' Joe wrote: asking for mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich

sounds good to me.

doublediamond

I saw people in their cars moving it this morning while walking to work and in the city too. I was really, really surprised. Freaking Jersey suspended alternate side!!!

paraderest

Bloomburg sucks.

alafairnadia

I saw some open parking spots on washington tonight that I would never have attempted to park in (and I used to live, and drive, in boston which is much snowier). bearing in mind that I was driving a vintage (aka first year) saturn.

whatchuwant

I got up this morning to move as well, and just like you, B.G., looked like I was the only one. Yep, 311. Called them at 2a.m. and again at 9a.m.,
"IN EFFECT!" I felt like the big do do to be the ONLY one who moved my car.
Better safe than sorry. Gotten too many tickets, been towed too many times...
Then there were the people with their lame attempts to dig themselves out at exactly the time alternate side took effect. That was fun. They were still digging TWO HOURS later when I went to retrieve my car. THOSE people got fucked.

bigguy

I don't think anyone on my block got a ticket. I guess they just weren't enforcing, at least not everywhere.

And yes, a pastrami with mayo (and swiss) sounds faily awesome to me.

sweet tea

ah, yes. the past couple days i keep thinking:

1. i'm so glad i don't live in chicago anymore.

2. i'm so glad i don't live in chicago with my car anymore

quijibo

bloomberg just waived any parking tickets for yesterday and today...

mattyblunt

i moved my car on both nights without incident. after cleaning my car off on wednesday at about 7 pm, i found a spot with in 2 minutes. last night with a little backing up and going foward, i got out of the spot and found a new one on the right side around the block.
instead of calling up 311 repeatedly to find out what you already know, i would go and move my car. it wasnt that bad. it didnt take me more than moving my car any other day (other than clearing off the ice and snow).

paraderest

Here's a little hint. Buy yourself a small shovel to keep in the trunk of your car. This shovel will come in handy when your car is plowed in or when you need to clear a parking spot that has high snow in the way. A $10 shovel is a heck of alot cheaper than getting parking tickets.

t-fal

that is a good idea ParadeRest,

But just you wait until you get a snowfall that covers your car! It's probably not likely here, but its happened to me in my hometown. It was a bitch and a half trying to broom sweep my way through 3+ feet of snow to get to my car, and my shovel.

bigguy

instead of calling up 311 repeatedly to find out what you already know, i would go and move my car

Yea but the whole point is that I didn't, and no one else did either, and none of us got a ticket. It's the small joys...

carnivore

alafairnadia wrote: [quote=Smokin' Joe]asking for mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich

sounds good to me.

BigGuy wrote: And yes, a pastrami with mayo (and swiss) sounds faily awesome to me.

Heathens!

Sometimes I can't believe I'm friends with you!

bigguy

Heathens!

...and Wonder Bread! Okay, maybe not the Wonder Bread but for me, meat and milk go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

As in,

'Hey you got cheese and mayo on my pastrami!'

'You got pastrami on my cheese and mayo!'

'Wow they go great together!'

guvna

mattyblunt wrote: i moved my car on both nights without incident. after cleaning my car off on wednesday at about 7 pm, i found a spot with in 2 minutes. last night with a little backing up and going foward, i got out of the spot and found a new one on the right side around the block.
instead of calling up 311 repeatedly to find out what you already know, i would go and move my car. it wasnt that bad. it didnt take me more than moving my car any other day (other than clearing off the ice and snow).

Good for you. I, on the other hand, had to chop ice and shovel snow for an hour because the plow had buried me the night before. If I were 10-20 years older, I can imagine a heart attack wouldnt have been out of the question. The city must take these things into consideration when they opt not to follow usual procedure in allowing a suspension of asp after a snows storm. On top of that, I moved my car, came back home to find that the city did nothing to remove the snow and ice from the empty spots that they made us get out of. I saw quite a few cars with tickets too.

In the end, bloomberg knows now that he made a mistake, so the tickets have been voided.

oiseau

The whole Alternate Side Stret Parking is a scam. If you look at the parking signs, there is a little broom on them. That is because we are supposed to move our cars so that the city can clean the streets where they were. You can not clean a street in this weather. Unless the city is actually bringing the sanitation department over to salt or plow the snow then basically it comes down to this: the citizen's of NYC have to hold up their end of the bargain but the city does not. It's a scam.

Furthermore, why does Park Slope have ASP once a week for each side of the street and Prospect Heights have it twice a week for each side of the street? Are the people in Prospect Heights any dirtier then the people in Park Slope? I think not? And there are some areas on NYC where there is no ASP! So what gives? It's all about trying to squeeze as much money from the poor and middle class as is possible.

We need a revolution!

mattyblunt

i think if everyone moved their cars on wednesday night/thursday morning, the roads would be plowed a little more. the storm was over by wednesday night. the longer you wait to clean off your car, the harder it is to get the ice off. its too bad people just ignored moving their cars, cuz we still have snow all over the street.

guvna

I dont know. I saw lots of cars moved for asp, but still sanitation didnt remove the ice/snow.

bigguy

the longer you wait to clean off your car, the harder it is to get the ice off

I don't know about that. By the time I moved my car, 30 seconds of cleaning did it - almost everything was already gone.

kizzo

why does Park Slope have ASP once a week for each side of the street and Prospect Heights have it twice a week

Maybe we should start bugging the city council about this. It was super annoying before (I've been thinking about this for awhile actually), but now that I have a bambino who screams as soon as contact is made with the car seat it has become the bane of my existence. I couldn't even move my car on thursday because I couldn't dig it out with the bambin. For once I was lucky and was spared the ticket, though I totally expected to get one.

oiseau

mattyblunt wrote: i think if everyone moved their cars on wednesday night/thursday morning, the roads would be plowed a little more.

How long have you lived in NYC?

Like they are going to plow the streets in Prospect Heights two days after a snow storm. Right.