Parking tickets are about to get 33 percent more expensive for a lot of drivers. Starting January 31, 2012, the city will be scrapping a popular program that would let motorists pay a reduced fine if they agreed not to fight their summons in court. The city expects to make roughly $50 million a year by nixing the program. That's more than diplomats owe in unpaid tickets! more ›

Before his sextacular political implosion, former Rep. Anthony Weiner was hard at work on a plan to make diplomats pay for their $18 million worth of parking infractions. Weiner may have turned out to be a hypocrite—he himself owed $2,180 in unpaid Washington DC parking tickets—in more ways than one, but his fight against diplomats' ticket exceptions was left hanging in the wind. But Forbes has taken to statistics and maps to better expose the sordid underbelly of what Andrea Peyser once referred to as those "malodorous, greedy, drunk and demented" foreign nationals. more ›

In what will surely be a blow to the city's sledgehammer-for-hire businesses, a new series of high tech immobilizing wheel boots will be applied to parking violators' cars that will allow them to remove the device themselves once they pay their fine, The Post reports. more ›

The fuming over the NYPD's Wednesday ticketing blitz in Williamsburg, despite it being the second day of Passover, continues. The ticketing was especially galling to the community, as just the week before Jewish leaders, the police and local pols had sat down to break bread and pat each other on the back. One community leader, Isaac Abraham, complained to the Post, "We have a lot of respect for the Police Department, but we're looking for just a little sensitivity." more ›

Passover started at sundown Monday night and continues until next Tuesday, but somebody forgot to explain the whole holiday-starting-at-sundown concept to the NYPD. Though the community had arranged for the suspension of parking rules for the first two days of the Jewish holiday, the NYPD got confused and thought that meant Monday and Tuesday. You can see where this is going. more ›

Last week, a grand jury probe began targeting approximately 40 cops from all 12 Bronx precincts, including delegates from the city's largest police union, for a ticket-fixing scheme. Then last weekend, it came out that the probe may have expanded to all five boroughs, and as many as 400 cops could face disciplinary charges as a result. But according to the president of one of those police unions, that's all ok, see, because everyone does it all the time, and has always done it! more ›

The city has a bit of a budget problem currently, so it makes sense that Mayor Bloomberg is looking to turn over every stone for any extra revenue he can find. So to that end, the city is now going after nearly 4,600 municipal employees with 12,000 outstanding tickets worth a total of $1.6 million, in the biggest scofflaw crackdown in years. more ›

The massive snowverwhelming sure was fun while it lasted, but with the bulk of the snow mountains now whittled down to obstinate snow hills, the Man says it's time to move your car so plows can get to the curb—and so that ticket agents can write up those who still can't get it out. On Monday, after a two week hiatus, the alternate-side parking rules were in full effect, and traffic cops were out with a vengeance. 9,910 tickets were written citywide, almost double the average 5,460 alternate side violations issued on a typical day! more ›

If a city data entry clerk ever promises to wipe away your overdue parking tickets for half of what you owe, don't do it! 20 drivers were fooled by just such an offer from Karen Frazier, 43, who earned thousands on the side "fixing" tickets. Her trick was to write bad checks to the city so it appeared as if the fines were paid—as long as customers looked before the checks bounced. The scam left Frazier's clients owing the city even more money. Frazier was eventually caught by the Department of Investigation and pled guilty to fraud, official misconduct and tampering with public record. She's getting a year in jail for her trouble. more ›

Imagine you've spent months fighting in Iraq, surrounded by hostile locals who don't want you there, and ignored by the folks at home who can't bother paying attention to what our government is doing with their $845 billion mission. You've finally returned from that sunstroke-inducing hell, the experience of which will forever haunt and partially define your life. And how are you welcomed back into civilian life? With a Kafkaesque journey into parking ticket hell. more ›

If it wasn't bad enough that there are thousands of city workers getting away with using illegal parking placards to park wherever they want without getting a ticket, it turns out there's a little-known perk that gives politicians the ability to get out of car jail for free every time: no matter how many tickets a politician gets, their official cars will never get hauled off to the pound. more ›

A data entry clerk at the Department of Finance repeatedly offered to make drivers' parking tickets "go away" in exchange for cash, usually half the amount of the ticket, the Manhattan DA alleges. Karen Frazier, 42, is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail after pleading not guilty yesterday to fraud, bribe receiving, tampering with records, and other charges related to her ticket-fixing scheme. Frazier allegedly ran the scam from October 2008 to August 2009, and given her astonishingly stupid methodology, it's amazing she got away with it for that long. more ›

This week marks the start of the 5-minute grace period on muni meters, and in the aftermath of the taxi scandal and the unrelenting nature of subway douchery , some New Yorkers might be thinking of getting their cars out of storage early this year. However, since Mayor Bloomberg took office there’s been a 45 percent increase in traffic-enforcement agents and a 64 percent spike in parking fees, so you're likely to run into one while visiting your grandparents at their retirement home. Thankfully, there are some easy ways to avoid lovely Rita's wrath. more ›

The city added another 1,000 traffic enforcement officers last year, a workforce that has grown over 40% in the last five years, where ticket agents are reportedly racing to dish out tickets in an attempt to earn big bonuses in commission. Yet somehow they still ended up bringing in less revenue in the fiscal year that just ended than in the previous one. The Post reports that revenue from parking tickets dropped almost $30 million this past year (to a measly $595M). A spokesman for the mayor believes it's because more people are beating tickets online. But driver advocates such as Glenn Bolofsky, founder of ticket-beating site parkingticket.com, told the Post, "They just don't have the money. If revenue is down, it's only because individuals and businesses can't afford to pay." Maybe the city could bring in some more dough if they actually took a stand against the rampant traffic violations going on unchecked at major intersections. And no matter how many tickets agents write, we're pretty sure that they're not getting any money from this guy. more ›

In recent years, drivers are finding that they have an easier time getting their parking tickets reduced, but a more difficult time having them waved off altogether. This is because of a little publicized settlement program introduced in 2005 by the city's Department of Finance. People who challenge citations have the opportunity to settle their tickets with a clerk if they choose to opt out of overturning them before a judge. But a Department spokesperson explains, “Judges are responsible for determining whether or not a violation has occurred, which wasn’t the case before..They were dismissing tickets, they were offering large reductions." Some are concerned however that the one of the reasons that tickets in those cases are getting waved less frequently is because administrative law judges, per diem employees, feel vulnerable to pressure from their superiors all the same and that "the pressure is on" to collect revenue under the new system. more ›

Council Members Davide Weprin, Simcha Felder and Vincent Gentile ripped up mock parking tickets in front of City Hall yesterday to protest what Gentile calls "a ticketing blitz, with New Yorkers being treated as revenue sources instead of residents, targets instead of partners." The Councilmen have introduced a bill that would require a five-minute "grace period" for certain parking violations, including no parking zones (such as alternate side) and expired Muni-Meters. more ›

Did you know that donations to politicians can be used to pay off their parking tickets? Apparently embattled Rep. Charles Rangel has paid off some 2007 parking violations (with his PT Cruiser!) in D.C. by using campaign money. A Rangel spokesman said there's "nothing unethical" about that, especially, as the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington points out, "if [the tickets] were incurred during campaign activities or in relation to Rangel’s position as an officeholder." His office told CREW, "Given the holidays and the press of business in preparation for the new administration, we have not reconstructed the circumstances behind each ticket. However, Congressman Rangel is confident that the National Leadership PAC and Rangel for Congress complied with all applicable laws and regulations in connection with these expenses, which were fully reported consistent with FEC requirements.” In NYC, Rangel rides around in a Cadillac DeVille. more ›

All NYPD precincts do not ticket equally; and a graphic in the Daily News displays where drivers are most and least likely to receive a parking ticket in New York City. It's not indicated why, but the total number of tickets issued by parking agents, 672,149, is down 13% from last year. The City hopes to remedy this with the recent addition of 200 more parking agents. more ›