MARCH 11, 2008 --

Last week, LPR took a chance and parked in Manhattan, during the day, on West 83rd Street, corner of Broadway.  To get back before the parking time ran out, LPR took a cab to 83rd Street, from 72nd.   The cab drove up Amsterdam Avenue to 83rd -- and LPR did now see the LPRmobile at the northeast corner where it had been parked. Panic returned -- until LPR recalled the car was parked near Broadway, not Amsterdam.

Here, now, are questions LPR hopes will one day be considered in providing oversight of the parking enforcement policies of New York City.  Where are judgements issued? Who issues judgments? Who determines that cars will be seized?   How is a seizure determination made.  Should economic hardship be a mitigating factor in care seizures?  Is it possible to be given a reduced fine in a hearing my mail? (LPR recalls that reduced penalties are offered in personal appearances at PVB offices before the cases he heard?)

The evidence at a PVB hearing against the motorist is, so far as LPR understands, the summons itself -- which of course cannot be cross-examined.  It seems difficult, to LPR, to convince a PVB examiner of exigent circumstances when the testament comes from hearsay -- albeit a business record -- and not from a person who might have seen the accused.   

(LPR will not long forget the laughter from two PVB agents who placed a ticket on the LPRmobile one week after ticketing the car while LPR covered tree-cutting work along Henry Hudson Parkway.  

Under the PVB system it was not possible to question the agents nor explain the need for that second stop, the week after the previous summons.)

And not least, LPR requests an alternative to seizing a car with a pet it in, as happened to LPR three years ago.

LPR. last year, received a summons for parking in a judges area at a courthouse in the Bronx, after 6:00 PM. LPR was serving, pro bono, as small claims arbitrator at the time, and had forgotten to place the arbitrator's card on the dashboard.

LPR wrote to PVB explaining the circumstances and the explanation was denied on the ground that an arbitrator is not a judge -- notwithstanding the fact that an arbitrator is permitted to park at this location after 6:00 PM.  

So far as LPR is aware, the LPRmobile remains subject to seizure because of this summons served while on pro bono service to the City of New York.