Thursday, June 2, 2011

Going after parking scofflaws? Try developers, too.

From the Daily News:

When deadbeats refuse to pay their parking tickets, towing and booting aren't enough, city officials say.

Now they're going after vehicle registrations.

"When you don't pay, we're going to come after you as hard as we possibly can," said Finance Commissioner David Frankel. "We've started looking at every way that we have to collect money from people who are putting the screws to the people who do pay."

The city sent warning letters in March to 13,000 motorists who had racked up five or more unpaid parking tickets over any 12-month period in the last eight years.

The deadbeats - who collectively owed the city $17 million for 130,000 tickets - were told they'd lose their registrations if they refuse to pay up.

That could mean facing misdemeanor charges that carry hefty fines or jail time if they're caught driving without a registration.

Some scofflaws promptly paid up, pouring a quick infusion of $1.6 million into the cash-strapped city's coffers to pay off 15,000 tickets.

Those who didn't respond within 30 days were turned over to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles for registration suspension.


I don't have a problem with this. However, why the crackdown on motorists and not on developers? How many of them have tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines? Stop issuing permits to them and pull the ones that have already been issued. Watch how quickly they would pay off their fines. That would rake in a hell of a lot more revenue than 15,000 parking tickets.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finance can start with the owners of the day care center being built at 196-29 42nd ave. in Auburndale/Bayside,who also own Kon Wah D/C center in Flushing at Former CM John Lui's old office.

they owe over $50,000.00 for 25 violations.

Anonymous said...

Those fines aren't exclusive to developers, you know... lumped in the totals are people with decks (which often were on the house when purchased), etc.

Queens Crapper said...

A homeowner is more likely to pay a fine than a developer. And if the fine is for an illegal conversion, then screw the homeowner, too.

Anonymous said...

my neighbor owes 24k to the city go after them please lol

Anonymous said...

I don't believe that Crappie is talking about an ECB fine for a deck --

Crappie means the developer who tried to illegally build something and wracked up $30,000 to $50,000 in ECB fines.

While the City is at it, they should also start adding interest onto those unpaid fines.

Anonymous said...

The common motorist doesnt have political connections. A developer does.

Anonymous said...

Developers suck. The one property next to me racked up over $44K in fines - leaves the property a dump and unoccupied. I think the city stopped giving them tickets b/c they know they are not going to collect anything. The city should go after that $$ and leave working people alone.

In addition, I love how the city loves to give cracked sidewalk tickets to homeowners and they delay or refuse to fix the craters on city streets.

Anonymous said...

Now, now, we don't want to piss off Mayor Mike by giving his developer friends tickets. Tickets are only for the little people.