A streetside used book seller with a beat-up '94 Civic has proudly kept the same Upper West Side parking space for, oh, about 11 years, and he's not moving anytime soon. Good thinking, guy! People in this city kill for a spot.
Charles Mysak found the spot on the corner of Columbus Ave and 68th St in 2001, and he goes to great lengths to maintain it. Every morning at 6:30 a.m., Mysak's wife drives him from their home in New Jersey to the space so they can temporarily move the car for street cleaning, then re-parks it in the same spot so Mysak can sell his books for the day. He spends about $36 in quarters every day feeding the meter, which is technically a violation of section 4-08(h) of the traffic rules.
Mysak, a former lawyer who started selling books after getting disbarred for stealing from his clients, told Jalopnik he thinks "Parking enforcement is a conspiracy against the laity, going back to, you know, medieval times...As far as I'm concerned, most parking enforcement actions are predatory in nature: they're anti-business, anti-commerce, and by definition, anti-New York." He's been ticketed several times and towed "once or twice," but says it's worth it because the business around his space is good.
And who knows, maybe one day he'll even take on Bloomberg! "If I had the opportunity, maybe I'll run for mayor or something and liberate the people of New York from the parking enforcement burden," Mysak said.
