Gothamist: Williamsburg Hasidim Outraged Over Saturday Parking Ticket Blitz

chasid

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:22:03 -0500

King Solomon (the smartest man of all) already said אל תען כסיל כאולתו פן תשוה לו גם אתה (Mishli 24, 5 & 4) The meaning of it is “Don’t answer (or argue) with a fool, maybe you will become like him”. So just for answering here on this blog I’m already a fool according to King Solomon. Some of you here a bunch of fools and yes, a bunch of anti-Semites or at the very best, self hating Jews. You don’t even have your facts in place, but jump to bash Chasidim because of their religion. And that is the meaning of anti-Semites. No, I don’t believe in using “Religious” cry for every small event. You are citizens of a country, city, etc and have to abide by the rules. However, in a free society it is the people who rule. In a Stalinist state you are not allowed to question anything unless you want to spend 30 years in the Gulag. For the facts: I live on Kent Avenue. There were the regular alternative signs posted Friday evening. The signs were changed late evening or in the middle of the night. By Saturday morning, there were already tickets on most cars. No… the traffic enforcement agents did not discriminate… They wrote tickets for Jewish owners, Hispanics and hipsters alike. You don’t just change the signs on a street and write up a bunch of tickets the next morning before the sun even finished saying good morning. All area residents were outraged, not just the Chasidim… Regarding the bike lanes… I am very much pro bike lanes (surprised?). I agree that most in the Chasidic community don’t ride bikes for recreation or transportation. They should. However, it should be in proportion. Sharing the road is a two way street. Motor vehicles respecting bike riders and also the other way around. People live on Kent Avenue. They need to be able to drop off their family or unload groceries in front of their home. NO STOPPING in front of your own home is stupid. I’m not even talking now about PARKING. We do need bike lanes. But isn’t it enough on Bedford Avenue, Berry Street and Wythe Avenue? Do we need to chase out the very last remaining manufactures in the area of Kent Avenue in Williamsburg and Greenpoint? We already lost thousand of jobs for the middle and lower class to accommodate hipsters and bloggers who think they are very smart because they go down to get a coffee every day at 10:45AM in their pajama pants. But in the meantime we lost manufacturing jobs to a mostly minirotity population like 3rd generation Puerto Ricans who are living and working here in the community… So please… know your facts before you just bla bla away… You can be a nice blogger without being unintelligent or just stupid.

gregorsamsa77

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:06:31 -0500

shomer fucking shabbos

HowBoutDemCowboys

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:22:53 -0500

You gotta love it when a story like this comes along and some people say a few things here and there that aren't anti-Jewish at all, just a stab here and there at their superstitions and right off the bat, some non-Jewish person claims anti-Semitism. Actually, you gotta hate that kind of thing because it's not only dumb and sycophantic, but it's also divisive and misleading. It's like calling a kid a terrorist when all he did was play a practical joke on someone. Extremism works both ways people. Keep your extremely dumb comments away from message boards that tend to have a lot of sarcasm and wit on them.

abestr

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:42:00 -0500

“Not only did DOT change these signs without any notification to the area residents in advance, they did the change on a weekend (Friday Night after sunset) when the Jewish residents could not move the cars and the all residents parked the cars legally on Friday, not to move the car for the weekend.” Said Isaac Abraham, Williamsburg Community Leader. “Even more insulting was that early Saturday Morning, traffic enforcement agents already gave summonses to more then 25 cars parked on Kent Ave.” Mr. Abraham continued.

inoyourider

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:12 -0500

The law is the law. You're here, live by it.

handsomedevil

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:24:26 -0500

Might I remind you that many parking rules are lifted on Sundays, the Christian Sabbath? Hey, Jesus was crucified so that we can have our day of free parking. There's really no comparison.

NannyState

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:17:13 -0500

Next time I get a ticket, I'm showing up to fight it in a funny hat and beard.

Felix Hoenikker

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:02:30 -0500

#1 Beat me to it!

Spiritof76

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:48:31 -0500

Some smart, entrepreneurial goy could clean up by offering to move their cars for a fee every Saturday.

shovel

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:25:43 -0500

Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered what happens to all the 311 heating complaints for inhabitants of hasidic-owned buildings when the heat goes out on a Friday afternoon.

nextpaige

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:17:26 -0500

Wow, that's a lot of antisemitic comments. Might I remind you that many parking rules are lifted on Sundays, the Christian Sabbath? (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2005/pr05_79.shtml) How is that fair? I'm not even Jewish, but as long as our city has blue laws for Sundays, I say "let My people park!"

Think twice

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:10:59 -0500

@Squard Saw a trio of them use religion to get out of jury duty.

HughGass

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:55:32 -0500

"don't handle money" Please.

graybanks

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:39:17 -0500

Seriously, cry me a river to the holy land.

graybanks

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:38:25 -0500

I've been telling this to the traffic cops for years: /my/ religion prohibits me from moving my car for alternate side on Mondays, Tuesdays, all days divisible by two, and days in which the temperature is below 42F for two hours or more. But they never listen to me. Racists! I'm sure glad there has been progress made on this issue.

Polemicist

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:06:35 -0500

Funny, I've known about this for weeks. In fact, they've been protesting the bikers all summer. They don't like chicks in their tight pants.

pratyk

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:58:06 -0500

I'm gonna try this the next Hindu festival back in jersey ... hey if it works for them then why not us :)

Snoopy

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:28:11 -0500

It's those mass protest cyclists starting problems again. Ban all vehicles and build low and middle income housing in the streets.

editedby

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:24:07 -0500

It is obvious what they did was a protest the tickets should stand. When I read the headline, I knew the fines would go away: if you can "Storm" a precinct in Borough Park, and get away with it, you can certainly park on the wrong side of the street without worry.

Kyle T

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:22:48 -0500

m i n i v a n s

handsomedevil

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:17:28 -0500

To be clear, DOT changed a large swath of Kent St. (IRRC) from regular parking to "no standing", and then (immediately, it seems) issued a bunch of $115 tickets. Regardless of the neighborhood, it's a stupid way to change regs. You have to give people a good week to get out of there - wait until the day that parking would have turned over, and then nail anybody left after that. (For sharpshoota, I'm reminded of the big reversal during a freezing-rain storm like two years back. Remember when Bloomberg got on TV and said it's not difficult to move your car, but then relented?) So many city agencies just fail to see things from the citizen's point of view. They work for us.

JacqueMehoff

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:16:20 -0500

squard got it right, there should be signs stating work will be done for repairs etc.

thefacts

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:12:38 -0500

The tickets were written on Saturday. No one answers the phones at DOT over the weekend. So WHO gave the order over the weekend to forgive the tickets? Surely not the DOT 'spokesman'. Surely not the DOT commissioner - the papers reported her out galavanting. The Mayor? Surely he has more important things to do than this. The Traffic Courts were closed. So, WHO gave the order to unilaterally forgive these tickets. Who has this unbridled authority? Now, THAT's a story = more autocracy at the DOT.

JacqueMehoff

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:11:31 -0500

let this start a precedent.

Squard

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:09:04 -0500

Didn't they read the signs when they parked there on Friday? It's ludicrous that people are using religion to get out of paying parking tickets.

Rob T Firefly

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:07:44 -0500

Ten thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax...

JacqueMehoff

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:58:24 -0500

were they going to riot?

Rocknrope

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:56:11 -0500

Why does this story make me giggle?

WesleySnipesAlot

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:55:51 -0500

brilliant Lebowski reference.