Council Approves Grace Period For Parking Meters
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City drivers are one step closer to getting a few extra minutes of wiggle room around parking restrictions, despite strong objection from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The City Council passed a bill Monday allowing drivers a five minute grace period in certain no parking zones.
This applies to drivers parked in special Muni-Meter zones and on certain alternate side of the street zones.
Drivers have long complained of parking agents waiting for meters to expire just so they can slap them with tickets.
While Mayor Bloomberg ripped the legislation as irresponsible and unnecessary, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says the measure is a way of showing drivers that City Hall isn't out to get them.
"We are trying to make a system, that has gotten a lot of complaints, some fair, some unfair a little bit fairer to make life just a little bit easier in the city during a tough time," Quinn said.
"I will veto that it's a very misguided piece of legislation, the nice thing about a time stamp on your parking ticket, or the meter is you know it's going to run out. A five minute grace period is only going to lead to chaos," Bloomberg said.
Supporters appear to have far more than enough votes needed to override the mayor's expected veto.
According to city records, 10 million tickets were issued last year by parking agents.