Mayor Bloomberg to Car Owners: F You.

I'll admit, when I used to live in the city I didn't care much about alternate side of the street parking, or snowstorms, or the weather in general. In Manhattan mostly everyone uses public transportation and because of that those rules, regulations, and general conditions didn't really affect my life.

Then I moved to Brooklyn, and my fiance's mother loaned us her car. That was the beginning of the end.

Now I still hate cars, dangerous monstrous gas addicted terrors, but now that it's a part of my reality I've got to deal with it. When it snows I have to dig it out. Not my fiance, not my dad, not a cop, and not the mayor. Me. So, being that as it is, all I ask is that people allow me to do my business in peace.

I suppose the above was too much for the Mayor to take.

Last night I found my car buried under a ton of ice. Not snow, ice. My fiance and I checked 311 and discovered that alternate side of the street parking was still in effect, so for the next hour and a half, I shoveled, pounded, and busted ice from around the car like I was unearthing a f-cking Woolly Mammoth from a glacier. Needless to say, beyond following the rules I still have no idea why I was forced to do so.

First off, my car was buried because city plows buried it as they were clearing the one lane street where I was parked. Secondly, even if all the cars do get moved (highly unlikely considering the amount of snow and ice, and the large elderly population in my neighborhood) what is the city going to do about the street? Unless NYC has an ice crusher, or a team of flamethrowers I don't know about, cleaning the street will be useless until the temp rises. Now I understand that as I write this entire streets are being closed down for sanitation crews, but the work will be much too slow, and the city will pay too much in overtime for it to make much of a difference. We have public transportation for a reason. As long as the side walks are clean and people can make it to the subways business can still continue. Instead Mayor Bloomberg has decided to increase our already tangled court system which will be burdened down by people fighting (and probably winning) their parking violations. Suspending alt side parking for one day till the weekend would have been a merciful and practical decision in the face of this harsh weather.

""It was easy to move your car," Bloomberg told reporters. "I don't like to get up early in the morning and have to do anything either. I'd like to sleep in too. But it was the right thing to do.""

Bloomy, I still support you as Mayor but this statement is incredibly callous. First off, you take the train every day to work, a fact that holds you in high esteem with many of your supporters. And secondly, if you did have to drive would you really dig out your car? If I had your money I sure as hell wouldn't.

I think Bloomy's position was best described by Bk Councilman Vincent Gentile who said,

"It's "just another example of the Manhattan-centric method of management by this administration...It is bad enough that Brooklyn residents have to deal with slush on the road and trapped cars, but then to add insult to injury by not suspending alternate side parking and having the audacity to ticket Brooklyn drivers is ludicrous."

As a former Manhattan-centric New Yorker, I know what Gentile means--but a Mayor can't just think of the city in making policy decisions. Especially when a small act of kindness can ease the suffering of thousands.

PS: I do want to give a shout out to the good Samaritan who helped me out yesterday. Into my forty-something minute of digging, a dude passed by who offered me and the guy behind me a hand. Like a typical New Yorker I expected him to hit me up for cash or steal my car, but when it was all done, like a real hero, he smiled and wished me the best. To who ever you are thanks for the help and for reminding me that humanity is still worth saving.