BOOTERS GET THE BOOT
IN EAST HAMPTON

By Dan Rattiner

As a result of an incident between a motorist in a private parking lot and a young man who had placed a boot on the tire of her car to immobilize it, Joe Gurrera, the owner of the Citarella chain of food stores, has fired the company that provided that parking control service. Instead, patrons of the popular store are now greeted at the entrance to the lot by an attendant who issues a small free parking ticket to customers, with the instructions that they be placed on the dashboards of their cars.

"This is a private lot for people either shopping at Citarella or for patrons of the East Hampton Gym here at the back of the building."

"We're shopping at Citarella," we said, when we arrived because, indeed, we were. We were going to have lunch at one of the café tables out front.

"It's good for two hours," the young man said, handing us the little ticket. "Welcome to Citarella."

In the lot, we found no other signs to limit our parking, no notices about cars being immobilized and not being released until a $175 fine was paid, just the sign about the two-hour limit.

We had lunch of ham and brie on a roll, and a tuna on rye with lettuce and tomato. We had light lemon drinks.

Booting cars in the Hamptons has been going on for 10 years. Nobody likes it. But for people with private lots with problems in allowing their customers a place to park, it's become for some a way to end the illegal parking practice.

The incident two weeks ago involved a young and not properly trained employee of the booting company. The employee put a clamp on the tire of the car owned by the woman before the two hour limit was up, and then, slapped a camera away as she tried to take a picture of him. Instead, as he pushed her, the camera struck her in the face giving her a black eye.

The lot is owned by developer Ben Krupinski and is leased by Gurrera, who is partnering with the tenant in the back, East Hampton Gym.

Going forward, there is to be a new sign in the lot to read as follows:

PRIVATE PROPERTY. Parking Only for Citarella Customers While Shopping and for East Hampton Gym Customers While Working Out. Any Violators Will Be Towed at Customer's Expense.

"It's unfortunate there's this parking situation in East Hampton," Joe told me. "But it's everywhere in the Village and there's all different ways of dealing with it."

Joe is to be commended for ending the booting program as quickly as he did after the altercation.

In the Village of East Hampton, which has jurisdiction over this lot, Village Manager Larry Cantwell said that the Village Attorney is looking into ways to regulate the practice of booting.

It was called to his attention, he said, by an article in Dan's Papers describing the booting laws passed in many cities and towns that severely limit the practice of booting. For example, in Minneapolis, booting is licensed, with licenses only issued to booting companies for specific lots that can meet specific specifications. The specific specifications are that it is impossible for a tow truck to properly enter or egress the property. Other than on such properties, booting is prohibited. Also, anyone employed by a booting company has to show proof of graduation from an anger management course.

At the present time, booting operations are going on in several other lots in the Hamptons. The sooner this practice is abandoned and the sooner regulations are made to severely limit the practice, the better.

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