License plates with the NYP designation are reserved for members of the press, I believe.

I assume that designation enables law enforcement to identify news media personnel and may also entitle them certain rights while reporting.

But does it also entitle them to the exclusive use of public parking spaces on city streets?

I travel past the CBS Studios on West 57th each morning and signs are posted all around the building indicating parking is for NYP Plates Only.

You have to wonder just who arranged that special break. And why. I mean, c'mon, can't Andy Rooney and his colleagues afford to park their cars in a garage? Just what have these people done to deserve a special public subsidy all their own? Sounds pretty generous to me.

But why stop there? Why not go ahead and name the whole street after Andy and the gang? 57th Street could become Sixty Minutes Street. Although that could get confusing. So maybe we should keep the 57th Street signs and just add a little name underneath like Sixty Minutes Way.

Someone said recently (when the city announced that 2 lanes of Broadway would be closed to traffic and turned into what? A MALL?) that under Mayor Bloomberg's administration New York City—all of it—is for sale. So with a huge revenue shortfall looming, why isn't NYC charging these people for all this privilege? Is it for lack of imagination? Or lack of parking spaces?
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VA Beltway
Re: NYP Plates & Privileges
August 07, 2008 08:12PM
In my travels, only NY and NJ seems to have plates for the press.

And I wonder about physician and dentist plates.
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LG
Re: NYP Plates & Privileges
December 09, 2015 09:34AM
This is a super weird article. NYC parking and traffic is incredibly difficult to navigate, so people who think it is important to society that reporters have access to newsworthy events without having to worry about being ticketed or towed decided to give them special license plates.

Depending on the administration in office, the rights those plates give them vary - under Bloomberg, they could only park in those NYP spots without getting ticketed; under other administrations, they've been able to double park or park on the sidewalk. The point of the NYP spaces near places where press vans often park is to give them a place to legally park without tying up traffic. Most of them are near places like the courthouses, the UN, Madison Square Garden where double-parking TV vans could cause a lot of traffic problems. It's maybe not an ideal solution, but I also can't think of a better one.

I mean, c'mon, can't Andy Rooney
> and his colleagues afford to park their cars in a
> garage? Just what have these people done to
> deserve a special public subsidy all their own?

[dmv.ny.gov] The plates are for news gathering vehicles, like those big vans with the satellite dishes on the top, or the cars journalists drive to report from an off-site location. Andy Rooney might have talked himself into one so he can park near his office, but if he has, that's an abuse of the system, not a problem with the system itself.

> Someone said recently (when the city announced
> that 2 lanes of Broadway would be closed to
> traffic and turned into what? A MALL?)

...a public plaza with cafe tables and seating. There are two definitions for the word "mall." In this case, it's the one that means "a usually public area often set with shade trees and designed as a promenade or as a pedestrian walk." [www.merriam-webster.com]

> with a huge
> revenue shortfall looming, why isn't NYC charging
> these people for all this privilege?

They are. There is a charge both to obtain and renew a press plate: [dmv.ny.gov]

> under Mayor Bloomberg's administration New York
> City—all of it—is for sale.

Under Mayor Bloomberg's administration, there was a huge crackdown on illegal parking, and since then, members of the press have only been allowed to park in the special designated spots. It's certainly not the case that Big Media somehow bribed the Bloomberg administration for special privileges. They are currently lobbying the DiBlasio administration to once again allow them immunity from ticketing when parked in ways that would otherwise be illegal, but that doesn't seem to be your concern.

All this took me about two minutes of googling to figure out. Try it yourself next time.

Sincerely,
A New Yorker
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Agnes C
Re: NYP Plates & Privileges
January 30, 2017 08:31AM
NYP plates are abused everywhere in the city. An inquirer was correct: What should these people have free parking at work? And even if they are out, "gathering a story," they are more often than not in a news mobile with cameras, etc.

NYP 5838 has been abusing parking in my area all the time - always overnight. Really? So why should they get a garage. Who wouldn't like to have overnight parking and not get a ticket or towed in the morning? This is a real abuse. Another one if the DDS plates - dentist on housecalls? Are you serious.
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