In early April City Council Speaker Christine Quinn described the City Council's argument that unused parking time bought at one meter should still be usable at another meter like so: if "you buy the time, you get to use it." A month later that quip is set to be the rule of the road. more ›

Is the video below—in which a disgruntled driver cuts down a parking meter with a chainsaw—real or fake? The internet isn't quite sure, but the video has blown up in the meantime. The uploader writes: "caught this on my iphone during a cab ride in brooklyn: a cop was giving these two guys a ticket because their van was parked by an expired parking meter and one of them got really mad and cut off the meter with a saw!!!" Watch below: more ›

Even though alternate side parking remains suspended today, parking meters are back on, which is great for the city because today they're rolling out higher parking meter rates. Starting in Manhattan and Queens, a quarter will now get you just 15 minutes instead of 20, and Muni-meters in Manhattan south of 86th Street will now cost $3 an hour instead of $2.50. Bronx will see changes in March, followed by Brooklyn and Staten Island in April. Unless they secede, in which case the rest of the city will have all the money we need and prices will never go up again. more ›

Heavens! Free Sunday parking may be ending on the Upper West Side: According to DNAinfo, Community Board 7's transportation committee voted 6-0 to approve a paid parking proposal: "Marc Glazer, the community board member behind the proposal, said [free Sunday parking] hurts Upper West Side businesses." On Sundays, cars linger and there are few spaces available to potential customers. He complained, "You come into the Upper West Side and you can't park next to the restaurant you want to eat at," and based on his own research, "cars spend an average of four to six hours in metered spots on Sundays, but only 90 minutes during the rest of the week." The City Council ended "pay to pray" in 2005. more ›

With the rest of the budget looking bleak, parking meters are apparently one of Mayor Bloomberg's few remaining cash cows. The city is anticipating an increase in the amount of money generated by parking meters, bringing earnings to $157 million—up 50 percent from two years ago. That cash, combined with money from towing fees and city-owned parking lots, constitutes a $1 billion revenue stream that shows no signs of drying up, the Advance reports. more ›

Just five more minutes, Dad! protested NYC drivers sick of expensive fines during street cleaning, and starting today they’ll have time to hit snooze. A new law gives vehicle owners a 300-second grace period during alternate side parking hours or at expired city Muni Meters. Bloomberg warned that the legislation would result in “chaos” as drivers quarreled with meter maids, gesturing at the faces of their watches. But City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fought the mayor and won: "Other cities have this [grace period] and it has not proven to be chaotic," Quinn said, according to the News. "It's a nice and appropriate amount of latitude to give New Yorkers in a place where we all know it's not easy to park." more ›

A parking garage at a Queens mall, didn't vandalize meters, but it did the next best thing. It plastered them with “No Parking Saturday” signs and placed blockades in front of them, hoping to funnel drivers into paid spots in its lot. The fliers were neon yellow, and marked with the NYPD’s insignia, but in fact they could have been run off at a local Kinkos. "The precinct was not aware that these signs were being put up," Sgt. Carlos Nieves, an NYPD spokeman told the News. "The only people that are allowed to put these signs up are the NYPD." more ›

After record numbers of scheming motorists beat, jammed and otherwise vandalized NYC parking meters last year, the number of operational meters is at an all-time low. Officials say some drivers are mad about increased parking fees, and take it out on the meters. Others jam things (not money) in the slots in order to take advantage of a new law that says cars parked at broken meters won’t be ticketed for as long as the time-limit allows. According to the NY Post, 83.9 percent of the 55,000 on-street meters were working from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2009. Why not just turn them all into into bike racks! more ›

240 defunct parking meters (right) will be reincarnated as bike racks on almost 40 blocks of the UWS, on Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues between 67th and 86th Streets. Last night Community Board 7 voted 23-12 to convert the old meters, and received strong backing from the Columbus Ave BID, whose secretary said they'd definitely like "those 185,000 bikers to shop in our stores and eat in our restaurants." Isn't it nice to see a neighborhood warmly welcoming bicylists (ahem, South Williamsburg)? We should totally do the next Bike Kill on the Upper West Side! [Via Streetsblog] more ›

Mayor Bloomberg says that if the City Council's planned five-minute grace period for parking violations goes into effect, there will be "chaos" on the streets. Based on this Daily News article, that already seems to be the case — and the law isn't even on the books yet. more ›

Earlier this week, the City Council passed a bill to add a five-minute grace period for drivers in certain no parking zones, such as alternate side parking regulations and expired Muni-Meters. Amid debate about the bill's worthiness, Mayor Bloomberg vowed to veto the legislation, saying "The five-minute grace period is only going to lead to chaos and enormous increases in the number of contested tickets, and in argument. Whose watch are you going to use?" Well, based on one Daily News reporter's experience, maybe it doesn't matter at all! more ›

On Monday the City Council passed a bill that would give motorists a five minute grace period on parking tickets issued at Muni-Meters or when a vehicle is in violation of alternate side parking regulations. Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to veto it, but the Council approved it 47 to 2, and they only need a two-thirds vote to override a veto, meaning the law could very well take effect in 90 days. Will "chaos" reign, as Bloomberg predicts, or will motorists receive a welcome relief from "parking enforcement officers hiding behind the bushes, waiting for the meter to run out," as one parking commissioner in White Plains puts it? more ›

Since February the DOT has been busy changing parking meters from 25 cents for 30 minutes to just 20 minutes for a quarter. It's the first such change on low-rate meters since 1995, and the Bloomberg administration expects it to yield an additional $16.8 million. All 17,842 meters in Queens have been changed, and the process is underway in The Bronx, to be followed by Brooklyn, Staten Island, and finally upper Manhattan in June. Of course, drivers and retailers are hopping mad about this, and the Post is savoring the populist fury. Queens florist Mathew Xenakis declares, "It's bad timing, it's a bad economy, and we're trying to survive." Brooklyn mechanic John Zarro opines, "Everybody is broke—the city should take away some meters to give people a break." And likely mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner sees a dark conspiracy at play, "In Queens, people woke up one morning and found that parking meters increased in the cover of night." But Ian Dutton of Manhattan's Community Board 2 posits that higher parking meter rates are good for business, because "the more cars we get to turn over, the more we get shoppers running quick errands into the stores." more ›

Maurice Mizrahi was storing 87 stolen parking meters in the basement of his mother's Flatbush home when she ratted him out to police. Mizrahi has been arrested seven times this year for stealing meters. Neighbors describe him as a drug addict who hasn't showered in months. He has been spotted shaking meters around the neighborhood to find ones with the most change, at which point he is able to spin them away from their base and carry them home in a shopping cart. For the NYPD to remove the 87 meters from Mizrahi's mother's basement required 15 men and took 2-1/2 hours. Police are searching for Mizrahi who they say made off with $6000 in quarters. more ›

The Department of Transportation announced a plan to test charging higher parking meter rates at high-demand times--the parking meter version of congestion pricing, as it were--in Manhattan and Brooklyn this fall. more ›