HAVE YOU OR A FRIEND GOTTEN YET ANOTHER PARKING TICKET RECENTLY?
EVER THOUGHT YOUR CAR WAS STOLEN, THEN FOUND OUT IT WAS TOWED BY THE NYPD INSTEAD?
SHOW YOUR FRUSTRATION IN A WAY EVEN THE METER MAIDS CAN APPRECIATE!
THE STORY:
Personally I’ve paid New York City just over $2,000 in parking tickets over the last 5 years I’ve lived here. That’s including THREE tows, one illegal that cost me a cab ride to the Tow Pound under the Kosciuszko Bridge and TWO days from work to get refunded. These expenses of time and money have been infuriating for me, causing things like Molotov cocktails and superglued car doors to seem like appropriate recourse. But I figured out a way to show my frustration without damaging police property.
Here’s the truth. Every one of those tickets I got was avoidable. All it would have cost me is convenience, sleep, paying a parking lot about 3x minimum wage, or time I wanted to spend doing something else. Historically I’ve been lazy and disorganized about getting my registration renewed, getting annual inspections, plunking quarters in meters, parking far enough away from hydrants, moving to the other side of the street for street cleaning, not double parking while unloading furniture into my new apartment, and a handful of other insane reasons I’ve donated to the city in $65-$115 increments. And it’s cost me.
Here’s more truth. The city counts on people like me for a sort of hidden revenue stream. Traffic Enforcement officers generally don’t enjoy handing out tickets, but there are about 3,000 of them under unofficial daily quotas of 20 per day, and a job’s a job. Tow truck drivers are ‘encouraged’ to drag 4 vehicles to the pound per shift or face consequences. A simple fact of NYC living is that people with cars are subjected to a predatory tax enforcement. It’s no small price to pay, but to be fair we could always just pay cab drivers or wait on the subway instead.
I ended up downgrading from a car to a motorcycle to a bicycle to avoid getting tickets, but even then I once got a $100 fine for sitting on my bicycle in a deserted subway station. It’s maddening. And from this madness were born two ideas. I wrote a play inspired by all this, and I designed this shirt. I wanted to put a positive spin on showing my frustration that I know other New Yorkers share while drawing public attention to this multi-million dollar racket the city’s got going. The front of the shirt is the iconic citation envelope and on the back are the dates where alternate side parking is suspended along with a few useful facts about how to park legally. My goal is to make back enough money selling these shirts so I can afford to produce the play I wrote. If I manage to break even at least I’ll still be happier knowing people are getting fewer parking tickets because of this.
So if you like the shirt tell someone about it. Buy one and wear it with pride!
Park safe. Money saved is tax free income.