Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/11/1124.asp

5/12/2006

New York City Ticketing Valet Parkers
New York City, New York's parking ticket quota has increased revenue by fifty percent but is threatening to shut down local business.

New York City, New York is giving parking tickets to motorists in the brief time it takes to drop off their car with valet parking attendants at restaurants. The move has angered local businesses. In January, the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining confirmed that the city used a ticket quota system to increase the number of traffic tickets issued -- and revenue collected. The quota on parking tickets has allowed revenue to jump 50 percent from $382 million in 2000 to $578 million in 2005.

"Literally, the hand off of a customer giving the keys to a valet out front... traffic enforcement will pull up, scan the registration and hand the ticket over and they're gone," one restaurant owner told WABC-TV.

Small business has been the hardest hit by the expansive ticketing program. Restaurant owners who pay these tickets for their customers end up losing money at the end of the evening, threatening their long-term survival. Similarly, pizza deliverers in Bay Ridge have to pay the expensive tickets out of the small tips they receive.

Source: Parking ticket blitz underway? (WABC-TV (NY), 5/10/2006)

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