By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — The City Council gave an early Christmas present to New Yorkers Monday afternoon in the form of a five-minute grace period for parking meters and alternate side parking restrictions.
The Council's voted to approve the measure in its last session for the year, overriding Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of the bill in early December.
“It seems somehow like an ultimate kick in the you-know-what,” Speaker Christine Quinn said of tickets issued within the few minutes of alternate side parking rules going into effect.
In the 2008 fiscal year, the city issued 28,000 tickets at the exact moment that alternate side parking rules kicked in, which Quinn dubbed a “small but significant number." Another 276,000 tickets were given out within five minutes of the restriction taking effect.
"New Yorkers will no longer feel there is a 'gotcha' mentality behind issuing these tickets," Council Member and incoming Comptroller John Liu said. He believes the grace period will restore civility to parking in the city.
Council Member Daniel Garodnick, who represents neighborhoods from Stuyvesant Town to the Upper East Side, was one of the two votes against overriding the mayor’s veto.
"I've gotten a very positive response to my vote, both from drivers and non-drivers in my district. Grace is not something that can be written into law,” Garodnick said in a statement earlier this month.
“What people want is reasonable and fair enforcement, which is best gotten through directives to the traffic agents, not legislation."
While Plains, N.Y. and Miami, Fla. have both had the grace period for years.
The City Council also voted on Monday to override the mayor’s veto of changes to clergy parking rules. The changes include allowing clergy with parking permits to park for up to five hours near their places of worship.
