(This is a shorter version of a letter sent to the Manhasset Park District in July.)

When I moved to Manhasset, I found the Park District to be the most annoying little bureaucracy in Nassau County. More recently, I have found it instead to be responsive and helpful. The newly announced monthly hang tags are a good example.

The parking permit machines malfunctioned, usually while I'm rushing to get a train. I would buy two or four weeks at a time, but then I would lose track of when one ended and get a parking ticket to remind me.

I just saw the flier for the new monthly hang tag. These are, in the words of Goldilocks, "just right." Last a long time, not several hundred dollars like an annual permit. I know when one is expiring because the end of the month is a pretty obvious event, and unlike buying four weeks from the machine you don't have to buy it on the exact day that the old one expires. Thank you, Park District.

Peter A. Lynn