The Stupid Jersey City Parking Authority

As my roommate, Abhi, and I were leaving our apartment this afternoon, we were surprised to see what he thought looked like a ticket on the windshield of his car. It looked too big to be a ticket though, so I told him it must be some kind of pamphlet or advertisement. When we got to the car, it was a warning notice informing us not to tamper with the boot that had been placed on his car. There was also a ticket for having parked for too long without a valid permit in a zoned area. That didn't make any sense. Abhi had just driven to the apartment to get lunch, and had been there for less than an hour. The sign on the street stated that we could park there for up to two hours without a permit. Confused, we tried to figure out what had happened and why on Earth Abhi's car had a boot on it. He had no outstanding tickets. Over the course of the day, and after multiple trips to the Jersey City Parking Authority building, we discovered the following:

1. You can't park in a zoned area for more than two hours over the course of the stated time. So, if the sign says you can park for two hours in a zoned area between 9 AM and 5 PM, that's the total amount of time you can be parked in ANY spot on ANY street in that zone. That's the most ridiculous rule, and I know of no other city that has such a rule. Basically, that means you can't park in a zoned area without a permit even if you move the car after two hours and find another spot even on a different street. Abhi's "offense" was that a parking officer had noticed his car on the street in the morning and again in the afternoon, even though it was parked in two different spots.
   
   
2. You can get booted without having any prior offenses. In fact, Abhi's car was booted at the same time he got the ticket. What does that achieve? The whole point of booting a car is to ensure payment from people who have lots of past tickets that have gone unpaid and ignored. Why does a first offense merit a boot? Ridiculous.
   
   
3. The Parking Authority and the municipality don't fall under the same jurisdiction. The Parking Authority is an independent contractor working for the city. Therefore, payment must be made to the Parking Authority to remove a boot and payment must be made to the municipality for the ticket. Also, you can't contest a boot by going to court to fight the accompanying ticket. The best you can hope for is that the judge will recommend to the Parking Authority that the boot fee be refunded. Considering that the Parking Authority makes $75 off each boot, what do you think the chances are that they're going to refund a payment that they've already received?

Abhi and I are outraged that such a scheme exists in America whereby a for-profit organization working under the municipality's auspices can rip people off. Judging by the number of people at the Jersey City Parking Authority building who had stories similar to ours, we think this is the kind of thing that someone has to take a stand against. I think the best course of action for us, personally, is to take this thing to traffic court (when we dispute the ticket) and see what channels to pursue to find out who keeps the Parking Authority accountable. But to fight for the principle of the thing, we should probably also tell our story to a local paper. I hope we do, and that we don't just let this go because it's too much of an inconvenience to pursue the matter.