PaulBin’s thread brought back some memories,
these are all true stories:
When I first moved here I learned quickly how to park in a spot the exact same size as my car. Then I learned how to create a spot, by pushing (with my car) a few cars parked consecutively, to create a space.
New York City has a policy called ‘Alternate Side Parking’ where parking is suspended on one side of the street between certain hours, usually 9:30 to 11:00 (it used to be 8 – 11 until a few years ago). This is to allow the street sweepers clear access and prevent people from leaving cars dormant for extended periods of time. These rules are suspended during governement/ school holidays and many obscure religious holidays too. Many New Yorkers will sit in their cars between those hours and move it for the street sweeper so as not to get a ticket. The parking violation bureau is out in full force at that time. The Alternate Side calendar is published by the city and can be downloaded into Outlook, quite handy. I always kept a copy in my glove box.
I used to double park my car and leave class at exactly 10:50 am (under the pretense of going to the bathroom)to move it to a legal spot. Did this for almost 2 years.
I used to ‘go get a coffee’ while working in Midtown, and quickly take a subway downtown to move my car to the other side for alternate side parking.
Finally I used to also sit in my car, with my laptop, living my Seinfeld moments as well.
Outside my building two cars were having some kind of road rage. They stop, one guy pulls a gun and shoots the other. I hear the gunshot and look out my window and see the guy on the street, he dies moments later apparently.
I used to live in the Upper West Side of Manhattan on the same block as the Dakota Apt. bldg. where John Lennon lived and died. I would frequently park on his ‘blood stain’ as I would literally park right where he was shot.
Also while living in the UWS I came across this guy who worked in one of the buildings on this block, he would jockey cars around into empty spots for a few bucks. At first I was suspicious, but I figured if the guys with the brand new Lexus’s and BMW’s trusted him, so should I. Worked out great for a year or so till I moved.
I had an old red Toyota Corolla during school, and once heading south on 7th Ave in the village. Two cabs on either side of me converged into my lane. I did not budge, both cabs left yellow paint on the sides of my car, they both jumped back into their lanes and both hit other cars at the same time. It was a beater so I didn’t care and more of a mark of honor among my friends to have the yellow paint smudges, kind of like kills on a fighter jet.
This Corolla required me to tap the starter with a 2′ steel rod while turning the key. I would start it like this all the time, often explaining to cops that I wasn’t really stealing the car.
Once I was waiting for my gf at a store in Brooklyn Heights and this truck pulls up along side and asks if I want to get the dent in my front fender repaired. I chuckle and said are u guys serious. They said ‘sure, we’ll fix it right now’. The guys hop out, pull the dent, mix up some bondo, sand and spray paint it. They are just finishing up when my gf returns, I ask her for $120 to pay the guys. This entertained all the people at an outdoor cafe and was quite the bargain I thought.
I once was rushing to school and a cabbie went thru a red light in the middle of Times Square and hit me. I lost my cool and broke his window, because he was mouthing off and was taunting me from inside his locked car. All in plain view of a cop, who then came over and summonsed the cabbie and told me to have a good day.
On one street I lived there were no ‘no parking signs’ so I would constantly get ticketed and would send in pictures of the street showing clearly there were no signs anywhere which would get the tickets dismissed. Did this for about a year or so, then one Saturday morning a city crew installed a new sign every 10 feet.
Once had a buddy visit who built engines for NASCAR. He came to the city with his sleeper Impala. I drove it up and down 4 avenues from Houston to 96th St. as fast as I could drive. IIRC we did it in under 30 minutes and stayed out of jail.
Had my car mistakenly towed and impounded in that far away lot in Brooklyn where Billy Bob Thornton works. The city marshal took the wrong car by mistake, got no compensation whatsoever. While in school I would amass parking tickets and have to pay them off every spring, trying to do this before my car was towed.
After the first WTC bombing I spun out in the tunnel under Battery Park and totaled the faithful Toyota described earlier. I left it on the street and ignored the summonses for years. Did not have a car for a few years, which was wonderful, rented them when I needed it. Within the first week after I bought a new Cherokee it was gone. I thought it was stolen, but it was impounded for unpaid tickets.
I once read years ago that the city of NY earned aprox. a half million dollars a day on traffic violation income. A few years ago parking ticket fines doubled from $55 to $110.
A couple of years ago I finally sprung for a parking garage, no more excitement fortunately, though over Christmas I ran into a Starbucks for 5 minutes, leaving my wife and daughter in the backseat. I come out and have a ticket. Nobody saw the meter maid somehow. My car may sit for a month at a time now. Walk, subway and cab is the way to get around NYC, but I still love driving in NY. Try driving in Moscow or Beijing, now that’s another story.
Edited 3/2/2008 4:17 pm ET by TGNY
Replies
Priceless!
Thanks for the good stories. I love Manhattan.
Steve
Had my car mistakenly towed and impounded in that far away lot in Brooklyn where Billy Bob Thornton works.
Been there done that.
I write the essay later.............Gravesneck End Road?
[email protected]
I really enjoyed your stories.
I'm to old to play the parking game, I have a garage for NYC. $$$ but worth the aggravation, especially to my wife.
Moscow, you have that right. The loop road can be a parking lot. For days at a time. Literally.
My biggest Moscow suprise was going from Sheremetyevo (the airport) into the city. It's a wide road, maybe 4-5 lanes.
While traffic was humming along at 60 mph, there were several guys sitting and standing in the highway, repainting the striped lines between the lanes while traffic whizzed by. Cars are coming within 2-3 feet of them. Holy moly.
Bombay is pretty bad for pedestrian fatalities especially at night.
Ha... great stories... most of mine involve near death experiences.
but, when we were living on Murray St, one buddy who did movie lighting, hence had trucks, hence had way too many tickets, decided to buy a little flat space a couple of blocks uptown.
One night he gets a call from the police telling him one of his trucks is on fire. It was a cold night, and the homeless he'd been letting squat there decided to warm up with a blaze under one of the trucks... place got fenced in with concertina wire soon thereafter.
Winterlude by the telephone wire,
Winterlude, it's makin' me lazy,
Come on, sit by the logs in the fire.
The moonlight reflects from the window
Where the snowflakes, they cover the sand.
Come out tonight, ev'rything will be tight,
Winterlude, this dude thinks you're grand.
Thank you for the storys, years ago i really saw cars banging into others to make a parking site and i have played real life bumpers cars with taxies, I was sad though not to see the checker cabs anymore If it was tough 30 years ago to park i cant even imagine what its like now.
i love driving our delivery vehicles in the city...still cant get a bus to look in his left mirror b4 hitting the gas away from a stop. we both kept movin though....
those @#$^#@ing sycamores that line the streets there will wreck the cheap aluminum corners on top of the box trucks but a few tubes of silicone make em hold water again....
it's much more fun to GIVE tickets than to recieve. most folks who get a ticket for parking (legit or not) rush off in a huff leaving a perfectly good parking spot for me! Got a keen eye for detail and a printer? You get the idea...
Lol. That is creative. I knew someone who made parking stickers for certain beach towns with sticky back transfer sheets.
thanks -
TGNY
Thanks for the stories. It brings back memories. We moved to Brooklyn back in 93' to put our son Tim in a special preschool for kids with CP.
We live in small town Iowa and we drove to Brooklyn with a 4 kids, an old van and a small u-haul.
We didn't know which exit to take once we got into Brooklyn, we go off on 4th Ave somewhere in the 120th St area and our apartment was on 11th St (Park Slope area). We drove stoplight to stoplight for about 100 blocks.
Talk about culture shock.
A friend clipped some ads in the paper for apartments. We made one phone call and got this Italian guy. We told him our story and and he says "We'll hold the apartment for you, you get into townand it will be ready for you, we just live next door."
So after driving all day and 100 blocks of "Momma were on the wrong side of the tracks" we pull into our street, lost as can be. A young man yells "Hey Iowa, over here". He was a friend of the family and he knew we were coming.
Rent was $1,400 a month for the kind of place we would rent in Iowa for $250. About 16' wide, 28' deep and 2 stories and their son lived on the 3rd floor.
They had milk, bread, jamb and some other foodstuffs in the fridge ready for us.
We still exchange Christmas cards with our landlords every year.
Brooklyn and NY was a real challenge in just daily living. And with 4 blond kids in tow we stuck out like a sore thumb.
Never had any trouble, even though we went everywhere and used the subway all the time. Our landlady was horrified that we went on the subway. Sometimes I would take Tim in his stroller on the subway to Utica station and then take the "$1 taxis" down to the school in Crown Heights. I was about the only white guy in most of those taxi rides.
As far as driving in Brooklyn, it was dog eat dog. I once saw a car go on the sidewalk just to get ahead at a long stoplight (Union St. on to Grand Army Plaza).
I got to love the place but I was sure glad to leave. Back in Iowa I just reveled in the wide open spaces and the driving through the farm lands.
Rich