By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A group of motorists, who were ticketed for parking in abandoned bus stops, have continued to get the run-around from the city, despite promises to nullify their fines, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When MTA service cuts rendered 570 city bus stops useless, signs were posted to alert residents, the paper explained:
"Attention: This location is no longer a bus stop."
What this message failed to mention is that the locations were also not parking spots.
Droves of unsuspecting motorists parked in the no-longer-bus-stops, and then found themselves slapped with $115 tickets, the Journal said.
The paper confronted the city's Finance Department about tickets in July, and the city agreed make the spots available for parking and to dismiss the tickets for anyone who bothered to contest them.
"If you contest it, we can dismiss it right away," Department spokesman, Owen Stone, told the Journal. "If you do nothing, we will be trying to collect from you."
But that's not what happened for Hunter College professor Bill Herman and his wife Christina Collins, according to the paper.
After attempting to contest their tickets, the couple received a letter from the city offering to reduce their fine from $115 to $90, the Journal said.
Herman and Collins then contacted the Journal who contacted the city, which in turn dismissed the tickets.
Stone claimed that the offer to reduce the fine had been sent automatically and that the couple would have had their tickets dismissed if they had decided to reject the offer, according to the paper.
But Herman argued to the Journal that this was attempt by the Finance Department to squeeze a buck out of confused citizens.
"They're trying to get money out of people who unwittingly think that's the best offer Finance will put on the table," Herman told the paper.
