Not even the dead are safe from the Morris Park meter maid ticket blitz. Senator Jeff Klein (D-34) and community leaders charge that, in addition to the monthly attack of 10,000 tickets, on at least two occasions meter maids ticketed and towed members of funeral processions.
Charging that businesses are being killed off by the ticket surge and outrage over the alleged funeral fallout, community leaders massed in front of F. Ruggiero &Sons Funeral Home last week to protest the ticket blitz.
“This administration is trying to generate revenue on the backs of the people of the Bronx,” said Klein. “Enough is enough in terms of ticketing.”
Police officials deny residents and Klein’s argument that they are being unfairly targeted.
“The parking summonses issued in the 49th Precinct are not the result of a ticket blitz,” said NYPD spokesperson Deputy Inspector Edward Mullen in a statement.
In October of 2006, Robert Ruggiero, owner of F. Ruggiero &Sons, watched as an entire funeral procession was ticketed.
“This is not a nightclub or a disco. These are people who are very upset at a time of deep emotional distress. It is unconscionable that the parking commissioner would act without respect for circumstance. I am losing business because of these outrageous policies; something needs to change,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero added that just recently, cars had been towed from St. Francis Church on Van Nest Avenue in the midst of a funeral.
It is not just the churches and funeral homes that are seeing their customers targeted. On average, Morris Park residents receive 10,000 tickets per month. The community is rivaled only by the 43rd Precinct, which has almost identical numbers, and the 52nd Precinct, which wrote 37,550 tickets over the course of three months (Jan-Mar). The neighborhood received 153 percent more total tickets than the average precinct. Residents claim that traffic agents have been blitzing the Morris Park commercial strips three to four times a day.
“Clearly, we’re getting a disproportionate number of tickets,” Klein said.
Frankie Agovino, president of the Morris Park Community Association, said the ticket blitz is having a devastating impact on the local economy. Like many traditional Bronx neighborhoods, Morris Park’s commercial district is not a mall or a series of chain stores. It is made of mom-and-pop businesses, and unlike neighborhoods such as the HUB or Arthur Avenue where there are no municipal parking lots, but only the meter-lined streets that are frequently filled with cars. As a result, parking is at a premium and many have stopped double parking just to hop into the store to get a newspaper or other small items for fear of being ticketed.
Klein said traffic agents almost kicked off World War III during a World Cup celebration. Last year when Italy won the title of world soccer champs, Morris Park erupted in celebration. Streets were lawfully closed off to allow joyous resident to dance and cheer on the blacktop; however, traffic agents tried to start writing tickets for the double parked cars in the closed off streets.
“All we want is common courtesy from meter maids,” Agovino said. Frequently, residents who double park to help an elderly relative out of their car have been ticketed before they even help the relative to the curb. “We’ve had enough and we’re tired.”
Klein and Morris Park Community Association had reached out to Department of Transportation officials to meet with community leaders and explain the situation. None showed.
“We’re just asking for a little leniency,” Ruggiero said.
