It's one thing to call the cops when another party has aggrieved you or violated your rights in some (even minor) way. It's entirely another for the government to create financial incentives for people to report their fellow citizens for petty crimes that the payee would otherwise not care about / be impacted by.
Even this particular bylaw is clearly contentious in the comments here. Surely you can think of at least one law that you disagree with - imagine if there was a payout for reporting on it, and how that scenario could play out.
I outlined this above, but I think there is a very clear argument that pollution is a violation of your property rights. Would you be happy if someone ran 200 Diesel engines upwind of you, making the air around your home on your property unbreathable? I believe that should philosophically indicate that your rights are being violated when someone is polluting.
I'm not against the law. If someone is polluting your air then you have a right to call the police and report it - but you should be doing that because you care about the air, and not because you're getting a cut of the ticket.
Property rights in the US, for good or ill, don't entitle you to force others to stop the flow of air going into your property. You can use your property rights to live inside of a sealed bubble if you don't want access to air.
What you really mean is you want to infringe on the property rights of others, because you're unwilling to seal off your own property.
Can you think of no other laws or situations where the same incentivized system was in place?
Personally, I can see both sides of the argument. I hope that most people can as well, even in today's polarized world, where sensationalism and tribalism abound. Ultimately, if one's action (privilege) poses a danger/risk to others, I tend to favor curbing that privilege, even if I don't like it. The key issue is the balancing act between the real danger/harm posed vs. the cost to privilege/right. In this instance, most people would agree that a city like NYC has plenty of privileged vehicle operators. So, curbing that privilege by limiting idling of diesel vehicles is more than acceptable.
