Riverdalians give meter readers the slip

By N. Clark Judd

Parking has always been, and may always be, one of the most kvetched about problems in New York City, and there’s never been much for drivers to console themselves with. The exception?

Finding a parking meter with time on it that the driver before you had already paid for.

With the advent of Munimeters, those days are gone from the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area’s thoroughfares — but drivers have found a way to give the gift of precious minutes to fellow travelers, anyway.

“I’d rather see someone else parking with my money than have Bloomberg getting it,” said Freddy Snyders, a Riverdale resident, as he bought parking time at a Munimeter on Johnson Avenue on Monday morning. He paid the automated kiosk by the curb and picked up his white receipt to put in the windshield of his car.

He was not a happy man. The new method for paying for parking has evoked widespread distaste among people who park in Riverdale.

That’s why Mr. Snyders and many other Riverdale residents keep their heads up for fellow parkers when they’re about to pull out of a spot. If people like Mr. Snyders pay for more time than they need, they’ll hand off their receipt to another driver.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, for whom the Munimeters are a consistent source of aggravation, says he is also a giver, and encourages others to do the same.

“I’ve done it and I know that people are doing it,” Mr. Dinowitz said. “If we can’t benefit from people’s leftover time on the old meters, the least we can do is hope that other people are as generous to us as I know we should be to other people in terms of giving away those slips.”

This is part of the October 29, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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