N.Y. license plates ranked among ugliest
New York”™s standard-issue license plates are some of the ugliest in the country, according to a report released this month.
New York”™s Empire Gold plates, with their blue-on-gold lettering and “Empire State” slogan, ranked 46 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a poll from CarInsurance.com. Only Virginia, Alaska, Michigan, Arkansas and Delaware ranked lower than New York, with Delaware rated ugliest for its gold-on-blue lettering and a plain design that says only “The First State.”
More than 2,000 respondents from around the United States were polled, asked to rank the attractiveness of plates. The runaway winner was Wyoming, whose plates depicting a hat-waving cowboy on horseback were the favorite of more than a third of those polled.
New York”™s Empire Gold plates have been in use since April 2010, when then-Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, required the immediate purchasing of  new plates as a method to generate revenue and decrease the state”™s budget deficit. The plan to require the plates was scrapped, but the plates have since been phased in through new car purchases and changes in registration over the last several years.
The new plates were an understated alternative to New York”™s last two designs, the white plates with the Statue of Liberty in use from 1986 to 2001, and Empire Gold’s immediate predecessor: the white plates with blue lettering that depicted the Adirondacks, Niagara Falls and the New York City skyline.
Jeff Minard, a research historian with the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association said standard issue plates are becoming plainer and plainer. “Today”™s Texas is black and white and just says, ”˜Texas,”™” he said. “The bigger states have to consider cost. Plain is easier.”
New York”™s neighbors fared slightly better than the Empire State. Connecticut was ranked 31st, Pennsylvania 33rd and New Jersey 39th.