Parking lowlife

Attached is the spineless coward ticketing people at their kids' sporting events. He's the guy who will ticket you if you switch sides 10 minutes early or you don't switch 10 minutes too late.


It doesn't take a lot of guts to hit your neighbors up for $30 using loopholes. This man needs a severe egging.

 If someone is blocking a fire hydrant or parking in a handicapped parking spot, give them a ticket. But to go up and down the streets at the exact minutes the alternate parking changes, is a gutless act. We all know he is simply trying to impress his boss, career blowhard Kevin Helfer. Remember, BTK was a "compliance officer" and we all know how he turned out...

 

Happy New Year

Some Elmwood Village residents found parking tickets on their cars on New Year's Day. The city has the right to ticket people for violating the rules. However, is there anyone out there naive enough to think it's anything but a money grab by the city?

"I'm not disputing the fact of what the rules are, or the city's right to enforce them," replied Tritto. "But I think there was an honest assumption on the part of people that the rules would not be enforced on a holiday. What I'm also saying is that if you want people to feel welcome in your city...then we want city hall to show some common respect to residents."

Kevin Helfer is a liar and a phony who should have stuck to landscaping.The city under the false pretense of public safety, uses the alternate parking as a major money grab. It's just another racket so they can steal more of our money and hire more of their relatives. If you move your car 15 minutes early, they ticket you. If you are 15 minutes late, they ticket you. The losers in those stupid trucks are like modern day tax collectors from Biblical times.

I think they should make a game out of it. Let them ticket everyone, but also let us throw eggs and tomatoes at the lowlife scum they send out to write the tickets. Next time the guy shows up on my street, I might get a bullhorn and make fun of him from my second story porch. If I wanted to live in a police state, I'd move to North Korea...

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Wanted

Taken on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 by Patrick Blake. Who is the lowlife scum in this photo ticketing cars at South Buffalo youth soccer games? Wednesday is the league's busiest day and the Buffalo parking losers were out in full force to harass the working,tax paying parents in Cazenovia Park.

This is nothing more than a money grab. Kevin Helfer should be ashamed of himself. Mickey Kearns: You need to get involved and stand up for your constituents. This is a clear abuse of the law and goes against all common sense. Next week, I think it might be time to give the jackass in this photo a warning of our own. Megaphone. Check. Two dozen eggs. Check. Super soaker guns. Check.Camouflage gear. Check...Even the real police officers can't stand these guys, from what I'm told...


We'll be putting a guy named Carl Spackler in charge of these parking varmints. We'll see how many tickets they write after that...

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Cazenovia Park parking fiasco

I'm getting many requests from soccer parents to cover a story that took place this week in Cazenovia Park. Apparently, an overzealous parking enforcement officer ticketed between 50-100 parked cars, while tax paying parents watched their children's soccer games. Cars were ticketed in the Tosh Collins Community Center parking lot, as parents attended a game behind the building. Also, parents and grandparents of 4 and 5 year olds were ticketed as their kids played in games located around the Cazenovia Casino. This is the same casino, which has sat vacant for years until the soccer group decided to utilize it for Wednesday night games two years ago.

These tickets need to be voided immediately. I don't run the summer soccer program. However, I am one of their referees. The cost of one of these tickets rivals the cost of registering a kid in the league. The tickets are a slap in the face to South Buffalo parents who work and pay taxes. They were doing nothing wrong, as this historic Olmsted park was never constructed to accommodate automobiles. Because parents don't want to turn it into a huge asphalt parking lot, they use common sense and park along the roads adjacent to the fields. Obviously, the parking gestapo doesn't utilize a similar amount of this rational thinking.

I just found out about this tonight. I will be contacting the Councilman tomorrow to see if these tickets can be contested. The name of the officer/imbecile who wrote them up should also be made public. He should be suspended/fired for displaying a total lack of common sense. If anyone knows this idiot's name, please forward it to me, so I can issue an immediate decree to egg his house. I can't stomach these guys. They're like the tax collectors from Biblical times. Alternate parking changes at 6PM and they're out there at 6:10 to give people tickets. I don't know how they can sleep at night. Don't give me the crap about following the law. We don't want or need Buffalo to become a police state. The city should be doing everything in it's power to keep families here and leagues like this supported. Instead of punishing the families, the mayor should give Jean and Tom Finn the key to the city, for running a great program serving over 700 children.

What an embarrassment. If you were ticketed, please call Councilmember Kearns at 851-5169 and tell him exactly where you parked. This is a travesty and it's one we shouldn't take lying down. This mayor would never send one of his parking goons up to North Buffalo and ticket people along Delaware Park. The city needs to admit it's mistake and void these tickets. Also, they should mow my lawn and buy me lunch while they're at it.

**Here's a link to a recent Buffalo News article (thank you Observer), talking about how municipalities rely on parking/speeding tickets as just another tax (as if we don't pay enough taxes already in Erie County)...

Local town and village courts collect millions of dollars in fines every year -- nearly $12 million in Erie and Niagara counties last year -- the majority coming from traffic fines.

Communities keep most of the money they collect, making court revenues an important and reliable source of revenue....

Fines steer critical funds to localities

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Highway robbery at HSBC Arena

In a move I think is completely justified, mayor Byron Brown has written a letter to the Attorney General's office asking for an investigation into price gouging at the parking lots near the HSBC Arena for the World Junior Hockey Championships. From The Buffalo News...

"The mayor is upset, and when [the rates at privately operated lots] were brought to our attention yesterday, we set about looking at what options we had available to us," said Peter K. Cutler, the mayor's spokesman. "It's clear the best one is to go to the Attorney General's Office to ask through their Consumer Affairs Bureau to look into this."

The mayor has written a letter to the Attorney General's Office requesting such an investigation, Cutler said.

Two greedy businessmen have done their best to make the city look bad. We have guests coming in from another country with limited parking options. Most don't know their way around town. Because of the Peace Bridge fiasco, they arrive just before game time, unsure of where to park. They face two unenviable choices: Get mugged by the parking companies and pay $50 to park or park a few blocks away and literally get mugged. Mark Croce, formerly an ambassador for the city, has completely taken advantage of the situation and has lost much credibility in doing so...

Buffalo, he said, was being too small-minded.

"Buffalo has to start thinking like a big city. This is a big event — it's supposed to generate economic development," Croce said.

Croce should stop trying to sound like Donald Trump. Nobody's buying the nonsense he's trying to sell. Most Buffalonians I've spoken to are embarrassed by his actions. He's given the city a black eye. So many people have worked hard to make this event a success. Croce's giving these fans a reason to never come back to Buffalo. Not a smart move for a guy with both hands out for the Statler Building. Bloggers have long memories.

Mayor wants state to probe parking prices near arena - City Hall - The Buffalo News

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Price gouging at HSBC

Charging $50 to park at HSBC is not supply and demand. It is price gouging. Mark Croce, who claims to be an ambassador for Buffalo, should be ashamed of himself. I can't believe anyone was willing to pay. Whether what he did was legal or not, Croce should be reprimanded for putting the city in such a bad light. This nonsense is inexcusable. He might have made a little money, but he's lost all credibility in my book...
wgrz.com | Buffalo, NY | Premium Price For Parking Charged At World Junior Hockey In Buffalo

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Cops vs. Ticketers

The ongoing battle between Buffalo cops and parking enforcement continues. A parking enforcer was found guilty of not wearing a seat belt and forced to pay a $50 fine and an $80 surcharge. (Only in dysfunctional New York state is the surcharge tax nearly twice as much as the fine.) Meanwhile, half the cars in downtown Buffalo were being broken into while the police wasted the taxpayers time with this nonsense. I have no sympathy for the parking enforcers either. In fact, I wish them a slow and painful death. They are extremely overzealous and power hungry.

In other 6th grade news, someone at my school told on another student at lunch...

Parking enforcement officers paying up : City & Region : The Buffalo News

Buffalo Police vs Buffalo Parking Enforcement

Parking enforcement in the city of Buffalo is a complete joke. Everyone knows that, and it's a major reason people avoid going downtown. (That, and the only stores left sell inner city street gear.) I'm sure there is probably more going on than they mention in this article. The police are upset because the rent a cop parking enforcers are ticketing their private cars downtown in front of police headquarters.The rent a cops probably got their orders from mayor Steve Casey. Who knows?

Apparently, the police are now going around trying to ticket the parking enforcers for seat belt violations! These people act like they are still in high school. If I was a cop and I read the article in today's paper, I'd be personally embarrassed. You got people breaking into legally parked cars left and right and you're spending your time playing high school games with the parking cops?

I worked downtown for six years. The parking cops are out of control. Half the meters are broken yet they constantly give out tickets in an overzealous manner. Someone parked in front of a fire hydrant deserves a ticket. However, in other close cases, they should give the car owner the benefit of the doubt, and they don't. I tried to fight a parking ticket once. The meter was broken. I went before one of the LoTempio political flunkies and of course I didn't stand a chance. Parking downtown is a big money grab for all the crooks in city hall. It's just funny to hear the police say they are short on manpower yet they have the time to drive around and engage in this type of petty behavior. How about going after the people downtown that are committing real crimes on a daily basis? I could tell you the exact locations where the smash and grabbers operate. If the police officers lived in Buffalo, they might be more concerned about quality of life issues. Lots of comments underneath this article...
Parking enforcers cry foul as cops get even : Home: The Buffalo News

I'm not the only one who feels this way. Here is a good letter from today's paper on the same topic:

It’s nice to sever ties with City of Buffalo

I left the city that I once loved 16 years ago, having become fed up with an incompetent City Hall and feeling I had become the prey of City Hall, having been repeatedly ticketed five minutes after alternate parking went into effect on the West Side.

I finally have severed my only link to the city. I sold the property I used to live in, now a rental property, for $55,000, after years of fighting with the city over its tax assessment, last at $120,000. Perhaps the city will reimburse me for the excessive taxes I paid over many years, but I won’t hold my breath.
I’m not complaining, mind you. It’s worth it to never have to deal with the City of Buffalo again.
Gary Waldman
West Valley