Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson was walking around Manhattan one day last summer feeling what he describes as "a little sympathy for what it must be like to be a ticket writer in this town." He turned on his ever-present video camera and began shooting illegally parked cars and the variety of placards, badges and hand-scrawled notes left on their dashboards in an attempt to avoid a summons. With City Hall getting ready to reduce official parking placards by 20 percent and reorganize the way parking government parking privileges are managed, this latest Streetfilm is worth a minute of your time.
Clarence Eckerson
Streetfilms: Excuses
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