CSI in the News - CSI Today

Sure, the Tottenville native was a gentleman, quiet and thoughtful and genuine in an era of far too many it’s
-all-about-me coaching types. But White was also a pretty determined guy — some might even say stubborn
— when he decided that was the best route. Take the great CSI parking brouhaha, for instance.
This was years ago, and White had not yet affixed his annual college parking permit to the old jalopy he
used to get from his New Dorp home to the CSI campus. He had the permit. It was right there on the
dashboard, for anyone to see.
But it wasn’t stuck to the window in the usual manner.
One of the CSI security people took the oversight seriously enough to slap a summons on the car. Matty was
furious (or what passed for furious for a guy who never raised his voice or lost his smile, not even when
some ref was blowing a call in the final seconds of a close game).
He tried to reason with the CSI folks about the parking issue, as was his style. But when they turned a deaf
ear, he left his car in the parking lot, summons and all, in protest.
He took a couple of buses home to New Dorp that night.
The next day he once more pleaded his case with the authorities.
Again, he didn’t get any satisfaction. So he left the car in the parking lot once again, and took the bus home.
After a few days of more of the same, he arrived on campus one afternoon to find that the security people
had put a boot on one of his wheels. Now he couldn’t move the car even if he’d wanted to. So he left it there
in the CSI lot ... for several months.
All the while he took buses and negotiated with CSI parking people.
But no one seemed to want to budge, least of all, quiet, soft-spoken Matty White.
By the time spring rolled around, someone finally decided the old wreck with the boot on it in the middle of
the parking area was an eyesore. So they told White they were dismissing all penalties and freeing the
hostage car.
The parking powers had caved!
He’d won!
The boot was removed and White was told he was free to take the car.
Matty White said thank you.
But by then he’d decided he hadn’t been 100-percent right, after all. Now he wanted to pay the original cost
of the summons because, well, he thought that would be the right thing to do.
(For those interested, Matty White’s favorite charity is the CSI Association Tournament of Heroes.)
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