Urban Life

As Buffalonians and people all across New York State deal with an epidemic of license plate peeling, it's worth remembering that this is not the first time plate problems have popped up. In 1948, the problem wasn’t with the paint peeling off the plates — it was with plates peeling off bumpers.

Despite the fact that New York required new license plates every year in the 1940s, Buffalo Police Detective Sergeant Guy Dewey, who was the head of Buffalo’s Auto Theft Division, had hundreds of valid 1948 tags piled up in his office by midsummer.