After Unpaid Tickets, Singer\'s Van Is Towed and Sold

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

If you need proof that New York City is serious about parking tickets, talk to Joseph Arthur, the singer-songwriter and painter. The city towed Mr. Arthur's van from outside a Brooklyn garage where it was being repaired, because he said he had failed to pay $361 in parking tickets from earlier this year.

That would be a big headache in and of itself. But there was a failure of communication between Mr. Arthur, who was traveling, and his manager in Canada about whether the tickets had been paid and whether the car had been returned to the garage. So when Mr. Arthur returned from a trip to Mexico, he discovered the city had sold his car at auction. Inside were several vintage amplifiers he uses, a number of paintings he had done onstage, a hand-drawn set of tarot cards he was working on and merchandise

“My manager was Canadian and didn't understand the seriousness of the situation,” Mr. Arthur said Monday. †œIf I could turn back time I would, man.”

The city marshal who seized the vehicle, Robert F. Solimine of Brooklyn, has declined to identify the buyer of the van, a white 2003 Dodge Ram. This has caused Mr. Arthur no small amount of grief, but Ronald L. Kuby, the civil rights lawyer, has agreed to help him. Mr. Kuby said the city apparently followed the letter of the law in taking custody of the vehicle (the trigger for seizure is $350), so the only recourse is to beg city officials to reveal the buyer and hope that person will take pity on Mr. Arthur.

“I am hoping whoever bought it - at a good deal - has a soft spot in his or her heart for art and artists,” Mr. Kuby said. “Maybe he or she wants to do good in addition to doing well.”

Mr. Arthur was to play a gig with rented equipment on Monday night. “Hopefully we will find the new owner and just be able to buy it back,” he said.

Mr. Solimine did not ret urn a call seeking comment. The van was seized on July 26 outside Brooklyn Auto Collision and was sold at auction on Thursday.

“I have never sent the city do anything this fast,” Mr. Kuby said. “We have people wait longer to go to trial for coke sales.”