Photoshop + Laminator = Free Parking

Senator Tony Avella's placard, cut down the middle. Not the far less "real" looking fake used by the News and TransAlt (via Transportation Nation)

We already knew that parking placard abuse has been running rampant in the city for ages (heck, cops' moms are abusing them) but the Daily News and Transportation Alternatives today prove just how absurd the situation has gotten. Using little more than Photoshop and a laminator they were able to park all over town, free of charge. Again.

The team put together a fake placard from the fictional "New York State Numismatic Agency" and slapped it with "the seal of the Republic of Bulgaria and laminated to give it extra gravitas." Then they put it on their dashboard and went parking. Overall they left their vehicle for "more than seven hours in illegal spaces near City Hall, Brooklyn's Borough Hall and in the heart of Times Square."

They even parked for three hours in front of a fire hydrant in Brooklyn without so much as a peep from the po-po! All in all, more than 25 officers walked by their illegally parked car over its seven hours of illegal parking and "the vast majority of officers strolled by without much more than a passing glance at the car—or the placard."

The Police say it was just an oversight that they missed the bogus placard—"Since the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau special initiative against bogus and improper use of placards began in 2008, it has issued 29,885 summonses and towed 6,484 vehicles."—but this little experiment seems as good an argument as any for the proposal currently awaiting a vote in the City Council to put barcodes on all official placards—a proposal that fits in nicely with one of the Bloomberg administration's many ongoing initiatives.

But while we wait for that to pass... anyone got a good parking placard template they want to share with the class?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on June 22, 2011 5:08 PM

Comments [rss]

zincink

If you are going to have special parking you should pay for a special card. A card which has a serial number and barcode to determine whether you deserve it or not...but don't worry..keep handing out parking tickets and remember that the majority of Gen X already moved to Brooklyn.

robingee

Why Bulgaria?

Guest

My biggest concern.
The quality of life in this city stinks. I can't wait to leave.

xsquatchx

photoshop?!?!?!

hell, powerpoint will do, ensuring even middle managers will be able to create parking placards.

HughGass

A cop parks his blue BMW M3 in front of 75 West End Avenue every night, he lives in the building yet his placard says he's on "official police business".

Emmily_Litella

Come on people, this is serious. What message does it send to our children when we allow public space to be dedicated to private purposes, like vehicle storage, without at least charging for it? Zero tolerance for parking scofflaws.

ihateloggingin

Barcode on the placards to weed out the fakes.

John Joyce

Welcome to New York, civil servants have enjoyed parking privileges in this town for as long as we've had cars and civil servants. This manufactured outrage comes to us courtesy of transplants.

StedyRuckus

The outrage is coming from the use of bogus placards with which the streets are flooded. Plus, I'm a native, and I don;t know why these jerk offs get free parking. They can't take the train to work like everyone else?
What, their pensions aren't good enough already?

robingee

If you weren't born here you have no say! And police do not exist in other cities!

petercow

John, I've lived here every one of my 46 years, and I don't know what the f*ck you're talking about.

In your acquiescence of this, you speak for yourself.

Christopher J. Stephens

I'm a native. I'm outraged (though not surprised). And just because someone wasn't born here (like half of the city's residents? more than half?) doesn't mean they can't hope to make the city a better place. Complacency leads to a city turning into, well, think about Detroit.

John Joyce

Show me one instance of someone being harmed by a cop parking in a less than legal spot. This is simply a case of jealousy. People ask why should cops get to do this if I can't? Or why do they get a pension and I don't? The same people whine about bankers getting bonuses. Every job has its perks. I don't begrudge a bartender getting free booze or a musician getting groupies.

StedyRuckus

Not about legal placards, its about the amount of illegal placards being used in the city. The idea is to create a bar code on legal placards so people can't get away with shit like what happened inthe article.

petercow

Yes, show me one example of society being harmed by people flouting the law they are sworn to uphold!

Idiot.

ronshapley

Genius !!

jaycjay

"All in all, more than 25 officers walked by their illegally parked car over its seven hours of illegal parking and "the vast majority of officers strolled by without much more than a passing glance at the car"

Sure, nothing at all surprising about that: they're not supposed to be looking for parking violators. There's a whole separate staff of thousands of Traffic Enforcement Agents paid to do that; cops aren't supposed to under normal circumstances.

ktinnyc

From the link Daily News article, "During the course of seven hours, more than 25 cops or traffic agents passed by our illegally parked vehicle."

taracorinne

75% of news articles on gothamist come from the the daily news... and many times they rewrite them badly and or missing important info.

Miles Bader

"75% of news articles on gothamist come from the the daily news ... many times they rewrite them badly and or missing important info."

Considering the source, that probably makes the stories more accurate on average...