Dear Steve
The parking in your drive way fine is a fine only if the front or rear bumper protudes over the sidewalk blocking passage for walkers and strollers and wheelchairs and crips on crutches and so on so they are forced off the sidewalk and into the street to get around the protuding bumper thereby becoming a traffic hazard to oncoming traffic and quite possibly becoming another traffic accident statistic of person hit by a vehicle. You can park cross wise on the driveways and not be in violation.
Effective July 6, 2004, the fine for parking on the sidewalk (VC 22500F) is $100. Please call 415.553.1200 to report violations of this law.
The key phrase is from property line to curb. See the pdf below for a printable sheet you can place on a car violating the parking ordinance in your very neighborhood. They do think of everything don't they. Rat out your neighbors become a neighborhood hero or heroine and ask for a cut of the take.
Print out a warning flyer to place on cars parked on the sidewalk (pdf)
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Ah, in that case why not make it $1000? Think of the children!
Seriously, my point is that a $50 for overtime on a 2 hour space or a $100 for parking on the sidewalk are fines whose price grossly exceed the crime. I think a $20 ticket is a sufficient incentive suppress the behavior to tolerable levels.
What I see happening with city parking is much the same as what's happened in that private community. The people who fine directly benefit from the fines and thus the feedback loop leads to ever greater fines and ever stricter enforcement. It's the tragedy of big government in miniature.
Ron,
Thanks for the link to this flier. I am going to print it out and try to remember to carry a couple with me. Normally I am in the habit of leaving handwritten notes on the windshields of illegally parked government vehicles such as police cars and mosquitos (aka meter maid vehicles), but this will be more convenient. It's nice to see that the Department of Parasitic Thieves (DPT) has finally provided a useful service, even if it's only an online flier.
Oh, and Steve, thanks for the story about the booted Audi in Arizona (http://www.parkingenforcementforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3). I called and emailed the "head schmuck." He hung up on me, but it feels good to have interrupted his day to remind him what a rip-off operation he's running:
Gerry Richardson, GM
Arizona Parking Solutions ("solutions" ha! "Arizona Parking Hassles" would be a more appropriate name)
grichardson@...
O: 480-649-0008 X.705
F: 480-668-6629
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))