Why I like the New York Times (and New York):
The last New York City mechanical parking meter—an emblem of street life, an object of motorist frustration and endless source of fascination for city children since 1951—was withdrawn from service at 10:25 a.m. today.
The last mechanical parking meter was removed from its location in Coney Island today.
The demise of the mechanical meter was painless but not swift. Since 1995, when the city first tested battery-powered digital meters and quickly found them to be more accurate, reliable and vandal-proof than the older spring-loaded devices, the days of the mechanical meter have been numbered.
By the start of this year, the mechanical models made up only 2,000 of the 62,000 single-space meters in the city. This morning, in a somber but unpretentious ceremony on the southwest corner of West 10th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the very last one was retired.
Fifteen officials from the Parking Operations Bureau of the City Department of Transportation came to watch as the last mechanical meter was removed from its iron casing and replaced with a digital one. (The new and old meters both fit the same casing.)
“… in a somber but unpretentious ceremony …” Lovely!
