Parking Tickets and Requests for Special Treatment

Last week a priest parked in a fire lane just for a few minutes because, well, everyone else was doing it. After he was ticketed, he took his story to the media and to two city councilmen, in hopes that the brouhaha would pressure a judge to nullify the ticket.

When it comes to New York City parking policy, a lot of people ask for special treatment, and a lot of people get it. Sometimes for arguably good reasons, other times, well, not so much.

Streetfilms, after having brought you images of the transformation of Willoughby Street, car free Sundays on the Grand Concourse, and other films, presents its own take on people asking for special treatment when it comes to parking. Warning: There’s a lot of footage here of vehicles parking on the sidewalk. If this sort of footage upsets you, maybe you should watch something else.

 Clarence Eckerson, the man behind the camera over at Streetfilms, explained his motives for making this video:

In a way I felt bad for our ticket writing/traffic people they get so many “messages” from drivers and parkers.  So I decided I’d kind of put myself in their shoes and see what they see and how confusing it must be for them trying to write tickets. BTW: I had lots more but wanted to limit it to 1 minute in length.

Sick of seeing these films on the small screen?  Longer versions of Eckerson’s work are going to be shown tomorrow night at the Pioneer Theater in the East Village. As the linked page notes, you’ll want to get your tickets in advance. Word on the “street” is that there are only 200 tickets available, and that at a mere $9, they’re going like hotcakes.