Cruel mistress Lovely Rita Meter Maid is preparing to drive her poison-tipped pumps down on the necks of drivers outside of Manhattan, as the DOT is proposing to raise meter rates for the second time in two years, by 25 cents to raise the total of $1.00 an hour. Their budget is on the hurt and the agency needs cash, but pols aren't happy. Queens councilwoman Karen Koslowitz tells the Daily News that the rate increase is "unconscionable," and Bronx councilman James Vacca is vowing to "negotiate the rate hike out of the DOT's budget plan," which is what they did last January. Maybe it would just be easier to secede?
The DOT is projected to collect $679 million this year from the meters (that's 2,716,000,000 quarters!) and merchants believe that the rates are high enough as is, and to raise them any higher would hurt their business. "We lose customers all the time because of parking meters" says one sales clerk at a clothing store in Nassau county. Another adds "it will make shoppers madder than they already are." If only there was some other alternative to paying out the nose to fuel a massive tin box that you have to then pay to park. After all, New Yorkers mostly don't drive and shop anyway.
