People will do anything for parking in Manhattan -- even if it means confiscating a 93-year-old woman's spot.
For the last 31 years, 93-year-old Virginia Rubino parked her 1967 Cadillac in the same spot in downtown Manhattan. Now, her co-op board is allegedly taking her spot away. Her son -- a retired New York Police Department officer -- is working to try to get it back.
Six months ago, Rubino’s car was taken out of its spot on Grand Street to go in for repairs. Her son, Richard, told CBS News New York that when he attempted to return the car to it’s original spot, the co-op board said that the Rubinos had abandoned the spot and had not been paying their bills. Richard claims that the bill was supposed to be deducted from his bank account, just like his mother’s rent, but the board refused to give back the spot.
Rubino, a grandmother of 17, is now suing the co-op, according to Consumerist, for wrongfully confiscating her spot.
Rubino was paying about $120 a month for the spot -- a steal in today's hot real estate climate. Rubino is now being forced to park her car elsewhere where she is paying $550 a month.
“My mom has a limited income. This is costing us a great deal,” Richard told the New York Daily News. He added that while his mother has Parkinson’s disease and is no longer able to get behind the wheel, he drives the car to take her to doctors appointments.
Parking in Manhattan can not only be time-consuming, it is also confusing and expensive. Unclear signs and difficult meters to read can make it easy for anyone to accidentally get a ticket. New York City doled out more than 9.9 million tickets in 2010 and nearly 9.3 million in 2011 with the average ticket in 2011 costing $79.27, according to the New York Post.
The average price for one of New York City’s 103,000 off-street parking spaces will run you about $431 a month, according to about.com. New York is also home to a $1 million parking spot, Yahoo! News reports. The spot is the city's most expensive and is owned by a luxury condo building downtown.
Justice may be a long way away for the Rubinos. Richard told the New York Post there's now a 10-year wait list for a spot in the co-op's garage.
Related
Before You Go
