2:06pm

I am not one to complain....well that is not entirely true. Yesterday while meeting a friend for brunch, I parked in front of one of those mini-meters. At 12:06 I paid my fare, $0.50 for every 12 minutes or $5 for 2 hours and went on my way.
You can imagine what happens next or more what doesn't happened. I don't look back at my watch until about 2:10pm which is 4 minutes past my meter, I sprint over the car knowing the chances of amnesty were slim. Of course when I get to the car at 2:14 I'm greeted with the sight of the dreaded orange envelope jammed between my windshield and wiper.
Now I won't complain about getting a ticket as I had obviously over stayed my meter but when I look at the ticket I can see it was issued at 2:06PM and there was no meter-maid in sight so they were already well off this block. Now it could be a complete coincidence but my guess is that this meter-maid saw the parking ticket was about to expire when he or she walked past at 1:50pm and then waited around and issued the ticket as soon as the clock struck midnight.
I know NYC is trying to find ways to refill its money coffers but the thought of parking attendants waiting at somebody's car hoping to catch somebody running ate is sickening. How about a 3 minute grace-period (which I would have missed too) or at least a fair shot to miss a ticket.

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