Sitting behind the wheel of her gray?, Brooklyn resident Stephanie Doba uses her phone to punch the make, model and license plate number of a Toyota Camry into New York City’s online for reporting illegal parking. Prompted to describe the issue, she answers with voice-to-text: “Gas car parking at electric vehicle charging station.”

Doba has?made at least 10 such reports since New York City set up curbside EV chargers near her Park Slope home three years ago. Some days she walks to the tree-lined street where the public plugs are installed just to check if they’re being ICEd —?EV-speak for when curbside chargers are blocked by internal-combustion cars.?

“People need to know that they’re hurting actual people,” Doba says. “It’s like if you parked your car at a gas pump and [walked] away.”

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Sal Cameli bought his first EV?in 2012. Today he has two Nissan Leafs, which he rarely drives, and one Model Y. But Cameli doesn’t have a garage or driveway to charge in. Instead, he hired an electrician?to craft a 19-foot cable that plugs into a dryer hookup in his kitchen. The cable runs through a window and out to the street, where it’s fastened to a signpost to prevent tripping.?

The charger plugs into a dryer hookup in Cameli’s?kitchen.?

“In this neighborhood back then, there were no chargers at all,” Cameli says. “There was downtown Jersey City, but that’s 2.3 miles away. I’m not going to plug in there and then walk home.”

On nights when Cameli needs to use his charger, his biggest challenge is securing parking close enough for the cable to reach. That’s where the Nissans come in: One Leaf holds a spot by the signpost during the day, while Cameli is out and about in the Tesla.?The other Leaf is parked behind the first one. When Cameli gets home, he moves the placeholder car, then parks the Tesla in its spot and parks the second Leaf at an angle to protect the protruding charger plug from a sideswipe.?

Cameli says a full charge costs him $13.65 — $15 in summer — compared with $18 at the charging station that was installed near his apartment a few years ago. He charges the Tesla every four days and drives it about 12,500 miles (2,010 kilometers) per year; the Leafs get charged every six weeks. Cameli pegs his annual charging costs at just under $500.?

Cameli fastens the EV charger from his home window to a signpost.?

Alicia Canton, Bloomberg