Astoria Drivers Face Onslaught of NYC Ticketing Madness
This article is right on! Despite moving from Astoria almost 7 years ago, I still shop there - one of my children's schools is there, my children's doctors and dentist is there. I spent a week in the hospital there last January. I have friends there. I belong to WHY LEAVE ASTORIA and ASTORIANS for news and opinions on local businesses, which I support. Astoria has some recent additions in the form of world class restaurants - places which I gladly take my children!
Just today I went to a small store that's only open a few days a week - and showcases the work of local Astoria artists. I went to pick out a nice birthday gift for one of my dearest friends and took one of my kids with me to help. I circled the block for 20 mins looking for parking, since I am disabled and can't walk very far many days. When I came out, I had to climb over poorly removed snow while a ticketing agent stood tapping his ticket machine by my car. My disabled placard tag was clearly placed on the rear view window and the meter clicked off AS I WAS going for the door. What the heck!?!?
This summer, in the blistering heat, my registration peeled off. Already 1010WINS had done a story about the horrible glue problems drivers in NY State were having with registration stickers staying on! To top this off - the registration peeled and fell off while I was parked on Steinway Street (one of the large shopping thoroughfares in Astoria), with a valid muni-parking card displayed properly, in a store getting shoes with my children. I came back to a ticket. I fought the ticket of course.
These are only a couple of the stories of insanity I've dealt with in the last 18 months of attempting to support Astoria business and LEGALLY PARKING & PAYING for my parking. It includes a towing of my car - which should never have happened and a ticketing agent standing practically in front of my car so I couldn't pull it out without hitting them. (I finally did pull out - move it or lose it!)
This is ridiculous. The city needs money - I know. I also make every effort to park legally and feed the meters... but this has gotten out of line.
~~~~~
Swarms of traffic agents patrol the jammed streets of Astoria's commercial strips every day, writing tickets for expired meters and double-parked cars - even as drivers sit in their vehicles.
Finding an open space next to the curb on some streets can be near impossible, turning what should be a simple task of running errands into a time-consuming nightmare.
"This is the biggest source of complaints in my office," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), whose district office is on 31st St. near Ditmars Blvd. - one of the worst blocks in the neighborhood to find parking.
"People are getting tickets while they sit in their cars," Vallone said.
Like several areas Queens News is examining for its "Queens Parking Crunch" series, there are several causes for this congestion.
The street is narrowed by columns that support the elevated tracks for the N and W trains, and is packed with frustrated drivers looking for a spot so they can shop at the numerous stores and diners along the strip.
When a driver does find a space, there is little time to feed the meter, one business owner said. Gus Pavlakos, who owns Mike's Diner, got hit with a hefty fine as he waited for a co-worker to bring out some change for the hour-long spot, which costs a quarter for 20 minutes.
"I was on my phone," Pavlakos said. "My foot was on the brake [and] they give me a ticket for $115."
Yet overzealous traffic agents do little to disperse the livery cabs that line the east side of the street, hoping to pick up a fare from straphangers exiting the elevated station.
"These cabbies are not paying the meters," Vallone said. "They're doing the same thing [as the locals] and not getting tickets."
The hacks - who are not legally allowed to pick up fares unless they've been dispatched - frequently get into heated arguments with shoppers who try to squeeze into a space that opens up in the line, locals said.
"[Customers] are scared to park," said Harry Panagiotopoulos, who owns Igloo Cafe and has witnessed several altercations between the cabbies and locals.
However, stricter enforcement is not necessarily the answer to all of Astoria's parking problems, according to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
Parking tickets are "just a symptom of a system that's not working," said spokesman Wiley Norvell.
Studies show that raising the rates on meters during peak hours could lower the amount of vehicles looking for a parking spot, Norvell said.
"If we start changing the cost benefit, we might be able to drop demand," he said, adding that it would encourage motorists to use public transportation and use more of the ever-diminishing municipal parking lots.
Two city lots are located near 31st St. - 25 cents for 15 minutes, with a four-hour max - but there aren't any near other hard-to-park areas in Astoria, such as 30th Ave. and Steinway St.
"The city doesn't want to be in the parking business anymore," Norvell said.
Data compiled by the group found that the city makes up to five times more money in parking violations than it does off the meters, which doesn't surprise many residents.
"It's just annoying," said Harriet Krevolin, 73, who has lived near Ditmars for more than four decades, and got a parking ticket Wednesday, just seven minutes after alternate-side parking went into effect.
The handicapped-parking placard hanging in her windshield was obscured by the snow that had fallen hours earlier.
"They didn't even wipe the snow [to scan the registration]," she said. "They didn't want to."
"There used to be a little respect," she said.
SOURCE
Just today I went to a small store that's only open a few days a week - and showcases the work of local Astoria artists. I went to pick out a nice birthday gift for one of my dearest friends and took one of my kids with me to help. I circled the block for 20 mins looking for parking, since I am disabled and can't walk very far many days. When I came out, I had to climb over poorly removed snow while a ticketing agent stood tapping his ticket machine by my car. My disabled placard tag was clearly placed on the rear view window and the meter clicked off AS I WAS going for the door. What the heck!?!?
This summer, in the blistering heat, my registration peeled off. Already 1010WINS had done a story about the horrible glue problems drivers in NY State were having with registration stickers staying on! To top this off - the registration peeled and fell off while I was parked on Steinway Street (one of the large shopping thoroughfares in Astoria), with a valid muni-parking card displayed properly, in a store getting shoes with my children. I came back to a ticket. I fought the ticket of course.
These are only a couple of the stories of insanity I've dealt with in the last 18 months of attempting to support Astoria business and LEGALLY PARKING & PAYING for my parking. It includes a towing of my car - which should never have happened and a ticketing agent standing practically in front of my car so I couldn't pull it out without hitting them. (I finally did pull out - move it or lose it!)
This is ridiculous. The city needs money - I know. I also make every effort to park legally and feed the meters... but this has gotten out of line.
~~~~~
Swarms of traffic agents patrol the jammed streets of Astoria's commercial strips every day, writing tickets for expired meters and double-parked cars - even as drivers sit in their vehicles.
Finding an open space next to the curb on some streets can be near impossible, turning what should be a simple task of running errands into a time-consuming nightmare.
"This is the biggest source of complaints in my office," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), whose district office is on 31st St. near Ditmars Blvd. - one of the worst blocks in the neighborhood to find parking.
"People are getting tickets while they sit in their cars," Vallone said.
Like several areas Queens News is examining for its "Queens Parking Crunch" series, there are several causes for this congestion.
The street is narrowed by columns that support the elevated tracks for the N and W trains, and is packed with frustrated drivers looking for a spot so they can shop at the numerous stores and diners along the strip.
When a driver does find a space, there is little time to feed the meter, one business owner said. Gus Pavlakos, who owns Mike's Diner, got hit with a hefty fine as he waited for a co-worker to bring out some change for the hour-long spot, which costs a quarter for 20 minutes.
"I was on my phone," Pavlakos said. "My foot was on the brake [and] they give me a ticket for $115."
Yet overzealous traffic agents do little to disperse the livery cabs that line the east side of the street, hoping to pick up a fare from straphangers exiting the elevated station.
"These cabbies are not paying the meters," Vallone said. "They're doing the same thing [as the locals] and not getting tickets."
The hacks - who are not legally allowed to pick up fares unless they've been dispatched - frequently get into heated arguments with shoppers who try to squeeze into a space that opens up in the line, locals said.
"[Customers] are scared to park," said Harry Panagiotopoulos, who owns Igloo Cafe and has witnessed several altercations between the cabbies and locals.
However, stricter enforcement is not necessarily the answer to all of Astoria's parking problems, according to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
Parking tickets are "just a symptom of a system that's not working," said spokesman Wiley Norvell.
Studies show that raising the rates on meters during peak hours could lower the amount of vehicles looking for a parking spot, Norvell said.
"If we start changing the cost benefit, we might be able to drop demand," he said, adding that it would encourage motorists to use public transportation and use more of the ever-diminishing municipal parking lots.
Two city lots are located near 31st St. - 25 cents for 15 minutes, with a four-hour max - but there aren't any near other hard-to-park areas in Astoria, such as 30th Ave. and Steinway St.
"The city doesn't want to be in the parking business anymore," Norvell said.
Data compiled by the group found that the city makes up to five times more money in parking violations than it does off the meters, which doesn't surprise many residents.
"It's just annoying," said Harriet Krevolin, 73, who has lived near Ditmars for more than four decades, and got a parking ticket Wednesday, just seven minutes after alternate-side parking went into effect.
The handicapped-parking placard hanging in her windshield was obscured by the snow that had fallen hours earlier.
"They didn't even wipe the snow [to scan the registration]," she said. "They didn't want to."
"There used to be a little respect," she said.
SOURCE
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