Drivers Dig Out As Alternate-Side Parking Rules Return For First Time In Weeks
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules were back in effect Tuesday for the first time in nearly three weeks.
The regulations, which allow streets to be cleaned, had been suspended for 18 days due to a series of snowstorms.
Drivers were faced with a choice: dig out or risk getting a ticket.
On the Upper West Side, Benjamin Finkel's car had been snowed in at the same spot for days, with ice and snow covering his wheels. He borrowed a shovel to dig his car out so that he could be in compliance with the law, but he said some other drivers can't or won't do the same.
"The woman who loaned me this shovel ... she's not moving," he said. "I think for her, it's just sort of the price of parking."
Some motorists say getting a ticket, or even several tickets, is still cheaper than parking in a garage.
The problem, however, is that means city crews can't plow or clean the streets.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said the city's alternate side parking rules were suspended for 15 days to facilitate snow removal.
Officers were indeed spotted enforcing the rules Tuesday, Finch reported.
For New Yorkers whose cars were entombed by a frozen plow row, more than a shovel was required, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported. Some car owners were using hammers and ice picks.
"This stuff is really pretty solid," one man said. "It's like cracking rocks actually."
Pat said her car was dug out after the first storm.
"But then the plows came by and more snow came, and so I got plowed back in," she said.
For some small businessmen the return of alternate side rules was a delight. They say their snow removal business is booming.
"Today has been non-stop calls," Jason Dominguez said, "Now they see the urgency of doing it. It's a ticket or a quick $60 to the guys that will go out and do the work."
Dozens of cars on West End Avenue along Riverside Drive were ticketed for violating the alternate side parking rules.
Some people say since the city's plows worsened the problem for some motorists they should offer more help.
"I just don't understand why they haven't brought the trucks here to really help with this. Look at the ice, look at the ice and what we have to deal with," Linda Berman said.
A spokesperson for the DOT said their employees are still working 12-hour shifts to finish removing snow and ice from streets along alternate side parking routes, which can't happen if people refuse to move their cars.