I think you can pay for a permit here with cash but that will require a hike over to the county clerk cashier and a hike back with the receipt (about 4 blocks each way). You still have to do that with the Notice of Commencement (registering the job for potential liens) but that is in the same office as the clerk desk where the paper is filed but it would be a separate trip since you can't do the NOC without a permit number.
It is all of this that creates the business of permit runners. They do it all a batch at a time.
