Nov 28, 2008 11:39 pm US/Eastern
Astounding: 11,713 Tickets Issued On 1 NYC Block
Over The Last Fiscal Year, Disparity In Block-The-Box Offenses Between Manhattan, Rest Of City Staggering
NYPD: Not About Making Money, About Keeping Traffic Moving
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
New York City officials say the current ticket blitz is aimed at keeping traffic moving -- not making money. But tell that to the people on the most heavily ticketed block in the city.
Just how many tickets were written between July 2007 and June 2008 on 14th Street between 7th and 8th avenues?
Try a whopping 11,713, making this the most heavily ticketed block in all of New York.
"I just got one," one man said.
"You can see traffic agents working the block. Then they finish and another two start," another added.
Since Michael Bloomberg has become mayor, a New York Times breakdown of finance department data shows ticketing has gone up 42 percent, but the differences from even one block to the next can be astounding.
For example, just two blocks from that notorious block on 14th Street only 12 tickets were written.
One of the other least ticketed streets in the city is in Springfield Gardens, Queens -- 128th Drive between 233rd Street and Francis Lewis Boulevard had just one ticket issued in the past fiscal year.
And in the Willowbrook section of Staten Island, there's a three-block stretch around Willowbrook and Birchard where only one, one and two tickets were written on each block.
On the block in East New York, Brooklyn at Linden between Emerald and Ruby only one ticket was issued in the past fiscal year.
And let's complete the five-borough tour. In the Country Club section of the Bronx, at Stadium Avenue between Watt and Middletown Road, again, just one ticket.
Back over on 14th between 7th and 8th, it wasn't hard finding someone who had gotten a ticket. And with 200 more agents this year expect the city to issue even more of those familiar orange calling cards.
The day after Thanksgiving last year was the single biggest ticket day in the city, so expect all those new agents to try to set a new ticket blitz record.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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