Streetfilms: Excuses

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.

  • lee

    maybe you should add, “I am the brooklyn borough president”

  • Sad and hilarious at the same time.

  • Has anyone calculated the person-hours expended

    worrying about,
    fighting over,
    negotiating,
    planning for,
    building,
    enforcing,

    parking?

  • The funny thing is that when I forget my unlimited metrocard at home, I have to just suck it up and pay for another card. If I jump the turnstile I might get arrested and put in jail. Worst case scenario for these guys is a parking ticket that might get thrown out.

    Double standard?

  • John

    I’m sympathetic to these issues. I primarily commute to Manhattan from Brooklyn by bicycle. However I do have a car. There’s two problems I have with this video. One is double-parking for street cleaning. That is allowed in my neighborhood and it actually saves a lot of driving around. It prevents circling looking for parking and it keeps me from having to drive in if I can’t find parking. And there’e no real downside to it. Secondly is temp parking or standing next to a fire hydrant. Granted, thisis illegal, but I would much rather people do this than double park on streets like Court Street and severely impact other bikes and cars (especially bikes.) I try to avoid Court if at all possible on bike because there are always cars swerving to avoid double-parkers.

  • your alloowed to park next to a fire hydrant as long as a licensed driver remains at the wheel in the vehicle and can move the car at moment notice.
    the cop from LI with the note and all the out of area placars has a triangle flag though too small for a true burial flag, i think it is placed on the dashboard to mimic one.

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