Agreed, I totally missed that. Nothing to call the police about.

 

I certainly have no problem with handicap parking spots. My 25-year-old daughter had a major ankle injury a few years back and needed three surgeries to fix it. She loved the handicap placard because it minimized her crutch distance.

At the same time, it's always a challenge to figure out where the dividing line should be. For example, I rode a motorcycle for many years as my daily driver, and I am wondering how one can be handicapped enough to qualify for the placard yet still be able to pilot a motorcycle, a machine that requires significant eye/hand/leg coordination. If my bike was my only source of transportation and I broke my leg, then I guess I'd need to figure out how to make it work, but it sounds hard to do.

 

Unfortunately in NYC the parking placards are a huge problem since a lot of people cheat the system. I'll give out some numbers. It costs minimum of at least $25 to put your car in a lot for the day.(up to 12 hrs) In midtown, if you parked your car at a meter that you can pay for up to 3 hrs, and stay there for, say 9 hrs, it would cost close to $40.

The eligibility rules for NYC parking permit is as follows:

To be eligible to receive a City Parking Permit for People with Disabilities, the following requirements must be met:

• You must require the use of a private vehicle for transportation.
• You must have a severe, permanent disability that impairs mobility as certified by your personal physician and a New York City physician designated by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Medical Certification Unit (MCU).

Fine, but here is where the cheating happens:The New York City permit can be used with up to three vehicles. In the past I have seen ones with 10 license plates numbers. So you can get one for your grandfather, put your plate number on the permit and you now have free parking.

On top of this we have Police Surgeon Permits, NYS Courtesy Placards, ones for non-profit and religious groups, volunteer ambulance permits, and all the law enforcement. You are lucky if you can get a meter spot to park for 15 minutes because the permits allow you to park in the following spots:

• At any metered parking space, Passenger or Commercial, without charge
• At any “No Parking” space regardless of hours including those for Street Cleaning regulations
• At any space designated for use by Authorized Vehicles, including Diplomats (DPL), New York Press (NYP) or any governmental agency, except spaces designated for Ambulances and Ambulettes
• In any No Standing except Trucks Loading/Unloading or Truck Loading Zone (EXCEPTION: Garment District parking area on cross town streets 35th-41st Streets, between 6th and 8th Avenues). These signs should be read carefully; permit holders may park only during the days and times that trucks may park.

There are people with legitimate needs but for the most part it is a system that gets abused. The enforcement people just shake their heads even if you point out to them that a car hasn't left that metered spot for days. I don't think some traffic agents know what is a legit permit and what isn't.

It seems that other states enforce their rules better.
Sorry for the long post but it is really frustrating when you can't find a spot because all of them are taken by cars with some sort of permit.

Ed

 

Then thats the states fault and the laws need changed.

 

NYC? Good luck!

 

That person is an a$$hat. Unless you are scamming a HCP permit, or the permit is for another family member and not you, who the hell is anyone else to judge the nature and extent of another person's handicap based on watching them pull into a parking spot and watching them for 30 seconds?

You don't need to justify yourself to us, or anyone else. These are the same people that love to give parenting "advice" to parents with children who have autism or other special needs, who are having a difficult time in the store or the mall. People suck, sometimes. Sorry to hear you have to deal with this.

 

oh i know. Reason #9,687,543,279 i moved out of new york state as fast as possible.

 

NYC is a subculture in itself. Where else can you be a group of 4, on a Federal Holiday, and have a group of 3, one being a child, yell at you, in the Roosevelt Island (63rd st) subway station? We had guests in from LA (um that's the 2nd largest city in the USA, right?), who weren't exactly country bumpkins, and this ****** yells, "Ah, there's nothing I can do, she ain't gonna move."

What happened? My wife's BFF was standing on the left, taking the escalator. Federal Holiday, nobody on the escalator except 7 people. I responded, "You could say excuse me, that might work."

He told me why don't you go and **** yourself. Again, I think I could have pummeled the weasel, and I would have if I were in my 20's because I enjoyed engaging. I simply said, that was a suggestion. And so, she did not move, and they had no choice but to wait.

Anyway, back to the placards, how many fake ones are there, I'm sure Traffic has seen them all. Like a 760 BMW parked in lower Manhattan illegally, with a NY Fire Dept official business placard on the dash? I watched a guy in a very expensive suit come out of a building and into the car. Very confident there was no official City business except maybe a hedge fund going on.

edit: p.s. I thought of something very laughable. In my dad's days, anyone with a DPL plate had free reign to do anything and everything, but no longer. Any of these or Consul plates who amass violations are reported to DOS, who will not renew until the fines are settled. So these folks can beat up their spouses, get into fights, generally do as they please, but they cannot get around traffic summonses the way everyone else can. Queue Alannis Morissette--isn't it ironic?

 

If you went around slugging people that easily, how did you manage to stay out of jail?......assuming, of course, that that was the case?

 

I think it was a different time, when men could settle their differences rather openly. There was one time when someone sued me for $2 mil. claiming he became lame, lore, disabled, as a result of a fight. I looked this guy up on linkedin and laughed.

Anyway, I rather look at it somewhat like ice hockey, when someone goes too far, there is a response. The difference is in real life it's not a sport, and it's often not left on the ice so to speak. I have mellowed over the years, example. Yesterday, this 60+ yo in a Expedition blows a red light turning left, and I have a right arrow, green. He actually gave me the finger? I just got back from a trip to KY, in which over the course of 5 days, I did not encounter a single instance of aggressive driving. So I let it go. Try that in NYC or TX, or even PA (a girl going off to college recently was killed).

This is a rhetorical question: Ever been mugged? Ever been beaten up in elementary? If so, one learns to defend oneself pretty quickly. Many things in life are hands on, imho. I was taught by my mom to fight and make sure I was the last one standing--I do not think I can teach my 3 y.o. this way, things have changed. Everybody wins, there's no score, and trophies are given out for participation, not winning. The flip side is when there's a conflict, the bully is not punished, the bully and the victim are....

 

I'm hoping I am just reading this wrong and you aren't implying that someone that is disabled should be regulated to being poor and forced to live on SSI.

being disabled and needing a parking plaque, and being on SSI unable to work are 2 entirely different things.

I am disabled, and I have a disabled parking plaque, I am NOT incapable of working, I make a 6 figure income, I do not collect SSI and have no need to do so. I receive zero momentary benefit for my injuries and disabilities. That doesn't negate my disabilities.

some people are considered disabled and unable to work, therefore collect SSI as a result, while I agree there is huge abuse in regards to those that cheat the system, there are those that collect SSI who may have other sources of income and it is highly prejudicial for you to assume they have to live poor because they are on SSI.

as far as someone that has a disabled plaque and chooses to park in a normal spot.. I have good days and bad days, but I know there are others that are far worse than me, and I will park in normal spots most of the time because unless I am having a very bad day I am capable of walking a little further as to allow someone worse off, older, or in a wheel chair to have that disabled spot. A lot of people think this way, at least people I know..

 

You are wrong.

So if you have enough money to drive a Bentley, but you are in a wheel chair, you can't get an HCP tag? Are you the guy that yelled at the OP?? Sheesh.

 

yeah because you're disabled doesn't mean you're uneducated or can't earn money. I have a mechanical engineering degree. I earned that with my gi Bill. While in school yes I was eligible for disability. I worked up till just over a year ago as a self contracted worker for GM. I designed parts quality control jigs. I'm physically not able to keep up to do that work. My physical abilities have just deteriorated to the point I can't be productive. So now I receive ssd again. SSI is a different program to help those that are disabled and have not earned enough credits to get ssd. Ssd is a earned benefit just like social security for retirement. It doesn't Matter how much assets you have. The only restriction is if you earn over a certain amount in a month you're not eligible to get ssd benefits for that month. But you can have a million in the bank, as it is an earned benefit. Ithink honk there's a misunderstanding between the two programs.

 

Not at all. If they're able to work past it, by all means do so. I encourage and support that 100%. Again, I work in the health field and see CONSISTENTLY "disabled' people come in whom are jobless and perhaps show 0 external issues, don't seem to suffer from any internal ones either. Nowadays it's too easy to get a 'disabled' designation. That in lies the problem. My buddy was in the war too, he got hit by 3 IED's and the last one put him in a 6 month coma and fudged up his leg too. He earned, unfortunately, the disabled Vet status. Wouldn't wish that on anyone. Work in the health field long enough, especially the ER and you'll become jaded to peoples 'problems'; or at the least learn to differentiate the really sick people from the BS ones. I used to work at Publix (local grocery store), and they constantly hire disabled people, whether it be physical disabilities or cognitive ones. I have respect for those people.

I don't see it as being prejudiced at all. If you earn a highly livable income, why do you need SSI as well? We'd all like more money, BUT if you're capable of making more on your own, why dip your hand in the pot as well? Listen, I had a tumor that ended up causing me to lose hearing on my right side. I only hear in mono now. Is that a disability? I'd say so, probably not recognized by the government that way. I can't pinpoint noise for the life of me, all sound sounds like it's coming from everywhere for me. I still work, I still function and don't dip my hand into the pot.

TLR, no I don't feel that being poor is a requirement for being disabled.

No I'm not the guy who yelled at him. I was corrected about the SSI issue as per an earlier post, I was not aware that it was NOT a requirement to receive it. That part didn't matter to me, my gripe was using regular spots when disabled ones were available. And I rarely if ever see a disabled spot that's further from the store it's tied to; than a regular spot. If you have the ability and right to use those spots, use them first and foremost and give other drives consideration. I don't think that's unreasonable. Now, the ones who aren't the disabled person but holding onto the tag, take it down and use a regular spot, as someone pointed out, I agree with that.

 

Just another misguided statement. Maybe the driver is not handicapped, but his/her spouse is handicapped--and not on that trip. So the driver is being considerate of a person that actually needs the HCP spot, even though the car has HCP plates. This is what happens when you assume. If you can't walk a few more yards to a further parking spot, then just do your shopping on line.