It seems strange on a day like today to reminisce on winter, and the fact that it was only two months ago that we were dealing with blizzards, snow piles and slowdowns. But that's just what the Times did today, in an article about four people who believe that they were unfairly ticketed for failing to shovel their sidewalks at the same time when the city was failing to clear many of the streets.
The people believe they were the only ones who were cited during the week of the massive blizzard which paralyzed the city; the Sanitation Department, who write the vast majority of the citations every winter, didn't start handing out tickets until the second week of January. One of those people, Michael Yagudaev, even sued the city, because he was given a $100 ticket on Dec. 29 for failing to shovel his sidewalk at the corner of 67th Drive and 110th Street in Forest Hills; this came despite him being a 65-year-old who had suffered a heart attack, an aneurysm and surgery to remove gallbladder stones.
"You pay over $10,000 in property tax a year, and the city still tries to impose any fine they can on you. I just think it’s ridiculous all together. It’s just a way to fund the city’s negative budget,” his 22-year-old son Abraham argued in court last month. Yagudaev was the only case which was settled of the four tickets, and he wasn't forced to pay any fine in the end; however, the family did end up paying someone else that day to shovel the snow for them, which cost them $80.
