Dear Editor:
I have lived in Hoboken for five years without a private parking spot and have managed to avoid having my car towed until today. From what I had understood, the yellow parking curb areas which were expanded several months ago, were reduced by Mayor David Roberts in October 2004. While the curbs have not been repainted, a white line has been painted on each corner throughout town to demark the revised legal boundary.
However, while the Parking Utility is enforcing this line, the Hoboken Police Department is not. In fact, no one seems to know anything about it at the police department.
When I went to the Parking Utility looking for my missing car I told them how I was parked at Newark and Grand Streets (in a yellow area – within the white line side), and I was told they didn’t have my car, but that it was legal. They sent me to the police department to see if my car was stolen. The police department told me my car had been towed. When I mentioned the white line change to the towing/release department, no one in the room seemed to know anything about the change to the change to the yellow curbs.
Then, an officer came in and said he had “heard” that the Parking Utility made the white line change but the police were not officially observing the change. I was told that a lot of people are going to have the same problem, and I should just go to court and fight it. Why wouldn’t a change made by Mayor David Roberts in October 2004 be enforced by the Police Department on November 17, 2004? How can there be such a lapse in communication and enforcement?
I wasted two hours trying to find my towed car, $130 in towing charges and a parking ticket. Shouldn’t the Parking Utility and Police Department be working together? How can this discrepancy exist?