Apparently, Babysitting Parked Cars In New York City Is A Thing Now

For those unfamiliar with car ownership in overcrowded city life, alternate parking hours are designated dates and times that car owners have to ensure their car is moved from one side of the street to the other for street cleaning.

Residents failing to comply with the city's rules when it comes to parking can catch a $65 fine and, even worse, lose a parking spot. Charlet says that the idea struck her when she was sitting watching the chaos of residents and staff from buildings rushing around at the last minute and then getting into verbal and even physical altercations over parking spots. And New York is already chaotic and expensive for drivers.

Now, she charges people money to avoid the hassle and stress of dealing with the situation themselves. While she won't say exactly what she makes, Charlet told the New York Post that the side hustle pays half the rent on her Manhattan apartment. Manhattan apartments are famously wildly expensive, with average rent being around $4,000 per month for a one-bedroom unit. Even a studio apartment is over $3,000, so we can assume she's making at least $1,500 a month on the side.

New York Car Sitting Sydney Charlet Olga Ginzburg for N.Y.Post
In June, Charlet posted a video on TikTok advertising her service, including the slogan on a poster: “Need your car moved? The Car Sitter.” She included her professional contact details, and the result was over 500 inquiries. “The video blew up online,” she says, “I basically had to build the brand in a day.”

Her branding is along the lines of diffusing the drama and stress of the parking situation in Manhattan, but we suspect the biggest selling point is lowering the cost for people who aren't at home during alternate parking hours and regularly suck up the fine as a parking tax. We can fully understand that people would rather give a local resident up to $50 rather than give the local government $65. “A lot of people in the city will just take the ticket and not move their car because they don’t have the time,” says Charlet. “I figured, why not offer to sit in their cars for less than the cost of the initial fine?”

"Before I get in the car, I send the owner a video [of its exterior] to document any preexisting damage. I send the video to the client via email, sit in the car for an hour and a half - I don’t move the car until the street sweeper comes by - then I return the keys. And that’s it. I’m really babysitting the car.”

Clearly, Charlet has a concise business brain, and says she wants to turn the side hustle into a major business that covers all five New York boroughs. Also, a legit parallel parking expert. However, and we may not be helping her, going viral and having a story published by a major New York media outlet might not help. She's likely going to find some competition showing up, and the competition could easily lead to more chaos, shouting matches, and general drama. We wish her the best of luck, though. That's the American entrepreneurial spirit at work right there.