Diplomats Win Round in N.Y.C. Parking War

In the great New York parking battle, score one for the United Nations’ diplomatic scofflaws.

The United States announced Friday that a New York City plan to force U.N. diplomats to pay their parking tickets has been “deferred” while Bill Richardson, the American ambassador to the U.N., engages in shuttle diplomacy between City Hall and the world body in an effort to broker a final agreement.

Foreign ambassadors, backed by an opinion of the U.N. legal counsel, have complained that the plan breaches diplomatic immunity by threatening to revoke the diplomatic license plates of those who fail to pay parking tickets. The city claims to be losing millions of dollars a year as a result of unpaid tickets issued to cars with diplomatic plates.

The State Department has offered a proposal designed to meet the U.N.’s legal objections but still give diplomats an “incentive” to pay up. The plan would strip any U.N. mission of one diplomatic license plate for every employee who failed to pay parking citations for one year. This proposal shifts the penalty from the individual diplomat to the mission office.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has not yet signed on to the plan, but he told a radio audience Friday that it may be the best deal the city can get.