Sunday, March 06, 2005

Expensive carelessness

People talk about the high cost of living in Los Angeles, but in addition to $5 for milk or $2.50 for a gallon of gas, a big contributor is parking -- and not just how much extra you have to pay for a spot at your building or that it costs $600 a year to park at UCLA, but how much money we shell out to the most diligent, nefarious parking enforcement regime around.

One Thursday in January I came home from school and found what appeared to be a small white take-out menu under my windshield. When I noticed the swirl of muddy tire tracks on the pavement around my car I knew it was bad news. Thursday. Streetcleaning day for the north side of the street. Forgetting this key piece of information cost me $45. That really sucked.

So of course the next week when I volunteered to answer phones for the KCRW pledge drive (and had been forewarned about the diligency of the Santa Monica College police --KCRW is broadcast from basement there), I was extra careful to display the parking permit KCRW had given me and park in the correct lot when I arrived at 6:20 in the morning. I'm sure you can imagine my disbelief when I came outside later that morning to find a parking ticket for $38 on my windshield. What's more, the ticket even noted that I had a KCRW permit! I drove over and chatted with the parking officer who pointed out the fine print on my parking permit - I was only allowed to park in lot 1 after 3PM or on the weekends, not just any time I pleased. For that I'd have to try either lot A or C. Grrr...The parking officer did apologize for the situation and suggested that I contest the ticket (that she had written me 2 hours prior). I'm disappointed to report that the woman I contacted at KCRW to see if there was anything they could do forgot about me after 2 email exchanges.

So I contested the ticket myself. Last week I got a noticed that my ticket balance was 'outstanding' and I'd be in super big trouble (i.e., fined more) if I didn't pay up. Of course I was pissed because they didn't give me any news about my appeal. I was all set to call them up and tell them what procedural justice can buy them when two days later, I get news that my appeal had worked -- part way at least. Now I only have to pay $20 for the ticket, which still exceeds my budget for what I think is reasonable, but I feel a little validated that they acknowledged I wasn't all wrong.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

instead of getting anything productive done, i spent friday driving to the courthouse in beverly hills/culver city (the address printed on my ticket, which i got when i was pulled over for having a headlight out) and finding out that i first need to go to the CHP (calif highway police, perhaps?) which is down the fuck town, driving down there in rush hour traffic (and driving back, still, in rush hour traffic, which took about an hour), having some dipshit sign my fucking ticket for getting my headlights fixed, but refusing to sign my OTHER ticket, from the west hollywood police, for not having a front license plate attached. gee i wonder why there is no front license plate on my car... maybe because the front of my car is smashed the fuck up and it fucking fell off? ya think? nah. it must just be because i am clearly trying to be an evasive person who doesn't feel like having a front license plate and needs to be fined in order to remind me that decent, sensible people have front license plates, whether they like it or not. so now i have to go pay $10 for the ticket for my headlights (on top of the many wasted hours), plus $31 for the license plate, but here is the kicker, i can't pay the license plate tikcet until i PROVE that i have it reattached. so according to the extremely helpful highwaypatrolman, i need to DRILL the license plate into the busted up bumper of my car or else glue it on, before march 9, or else i'm gonna have to pay $64 instead of the $31 which i definitely have to pay. i think some people probably need to die. those some people being 1. the bitch who fucking caused my accident 2. the fucking asshole who wrote me a ticket for my license plate 3. my fucking insurance company for being annoying 4. everybody. everybody die!! FUCK LA. everyone should die except me and you, and um, people who ride bikes.

12:28 AM  

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