Hoboken Officials, Residents Want To Boot The Boot Parking Ordinance

HOBOKEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- What could be worse than a parking ticket on your car? How about a parking boot stopping you in your tracks until you pay up?

As CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reported, it was an expensive night out for Mary Ann Savulich in Hoboken last Friday, after going over the four-hour parking limit on a city street.

"I got like a $150 boot on my car plus a $68 ticket," she said. "I was panicking that my car was immobilized. Like I couldn't move it. And it was late at night and it was raining last Friday and I just wanted to go home."

Hoboken City Council members Beth Mason and Theresa Castellano are calling for a change, arguing that giving cars the boot, including first time offenders, is an unfair ordinance.

"The problem with it is, it doesn't give you a chance to even defend whether or not you believe it was correctly placed on there or not," Mason said.

According to the city's website, "Per Hoboken City Code, vehicles parked in violation of posted signs and/or local ordinances may be summonsed, booted, and/or towed."

Mason thinks the city's confusing street signs are partly to blame.

"We have residents side only sides of the street with the green signs, you have to be able to read that. And then there are non-residents side parking and then there are certain places in town where you can only park for a certain limited time and even if you move to another area of town you still get a ticket," she said.

With parking already an issue in Hoboken, many told Sanchez they feel the boots are just an added deterrent.

"It's not fair to nobody even if you're a resident here," said one man said.

"If you want people to come here and spend money in this town, you can't penalize people as well for doing all of that," Savulich said.

It's no surprise that many in Hoboken feel it's time to boot the boot.

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