“Boot party in Shepherd Park”

by Prince Of Petworth July 1, 2016 at 12:45 pm 35 Comments

boot party

A reader reports:

“Parking enforcement had a boot party on the 7900-8000 blocks of Eastern Ave today. They booted by my count 8-9 cars. Here are pics of some.”

boots

CatieCat

There was a boot party in shaw the other morning. Saw a few cars at 6th and R getting the boot, as well as the van carrying all the boots. I wonder the chances of so many cars in a concentrated area all having boot-worthy violations?
- textdoc
  
  I wonder if there are boot-eligible cars elsewhere that escape the boot… it’s probably less cost-efficient to boot a car than it is to have a Parking Enforcement person going down the street just writing tickets.
  - Accountering
    
    I would be interested to see the numbers behind this – I spoke with a parking attendent giving another ticket to a lady double parked, and she told her she was boot eligible with over 1k in tickets. Once they boot it, they are going to tow it away, and that lady is going to lose her car.
pjl35

This is actually kind of bizarre for that side of Eastern Avenue, which is Maryland and not DC. I used to live in Rock Creek Springs–the apartment community seen in the first picture. As I recall, there are no parking restrictions along that side of the street (there are Zone parking restrictions on the DC side of Eastern Ave), so I’m really curious what these vehicles were all booted for…
- LongtermME
  
  Simple. You’re not immune from being booted b/c there is no parking restrictions on a specific street. If you have two or more tickets unpaid over 60 days, your car is eligible to be booted. DC is a bit lenient on the two or more tickets. You need to have a bit more than 2 tickets (don’t know the exact number) before you get the boot.
  - pjl35
    
    I’m just saying, similar to what Dan said below, I’m not so sure DC can assert jurisdiction over vehicles that are not currently located in the District, thereby disrupting the parking abilities of residents of a neighboring state while the cars are booted. Could they do so if the car was further out in suburban Maryland? Pennsylvania?
    - Accountering
      
      You may be right, good luck fighting it. If you are boot eligible, and think that by virtue of parking your car on the eastern side of Eastern Avenue you are safe, I would say (and judging by this picture DC parking enforcement would agree) that you are incorrect.
    - textdoc
      
      Wasn’t there some kind of weird exception on Eastern or Western where it turned out that although the _houses_ on the north side were in Maryland, the entire _street_ was considered to be in D.C.?
      .
      I have a vaaaague recollection of something being posted about this a while back.
      - pjl35
        
        You would think there would be residential zone parking restrictions on both sides of the street in that case, as compared to nothing on the Maryland side as there currently is.
      - Dan
        
        Zone 4 RPP is on the D.C. side of Eastern Avenue, NW and not on the Silver Spring, Maryland side. As I stated, MPD had placed a speeding camera on the Silver Spring side of Eastern Avenue sometime ago and I question Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and other MPD officials. I also contacted MYFOXDC and the speed camera was later removed. ABC7 news had a report on last year regarding MPD placing cameras on the Maryland side of Prince Georges County, Maryland. After the news report on ABC7 news, the speed camera was removed. I live close to this area because I shop at the Blair Park Giant. Silver Spring, Maryland have parking enforcement officers too. I am assuming they might have issued the boots.
      - textdoc
        
        I’m not familiar with the area, but I see what appears to be a red parking-related sign in front of/above the red coupe in photo #1, and in front of the black SUV in photo #2. Are those Maryland parking-related signs?
      - Anonymous
        
        Not sure about Eastern Avenue, but if you look at the boundary markers at Western and Wisconsin, they are both well north of the curb of Western Avenue. The entire street and both sidewalks are in DC. DC does the maintenance and plowing, even though the houses on the north side of the street are in Montgomery County.
    - The NeighborHood Reporter
      
      You must first understand the boundary streets in DC. The Streets are located within the DC/MD lines and DC has jurisdiction, in most cases including the sidewalks .
    - Me
      
      The District Border on Eastern Avenue is to the curbline on the Maryland side. On Western Avenue to the curbline of Maryland side, Southern Avenue to the curbline of Maryland side. In Virginia, the District Border is to the shoreline of Virginia side
      The District does have jurisdiction on Eastern Avenue and can issue tickets and boot cars parked on Eastern Avenue.
  - Anonamom
    
    I think it depends on where you are, and the mood of the booter. I know of a few people who got a boot after only two tickets.
- pjl35
  
  Correction: that last pic of the Accord is indeed on the DC side…but the rest are absolutely in Maryland.
  - Anonymous
    
    The road and the first couple of feet of treebox/sidewalk are all in DC, not Maryland, and controlled by DDOT/enforced by DPW.
    - pjl35
      
      Do you know why there’s a difference in the parking zone aspect then, as I asked above to textdoc? I have no dog in this fight I’m just curious.
      - Anonymous
        
        Theory: RPP is petitioned block-by-block & side-by-side. If there are no residents on one side of a block, then there won’t be RPP on that side (I know there are countless other examples near/next to schools and parks in residential areas). The default in residential areas not near the metro in is no restrictions and add RPP only if residents want it.
- CPT_Doom
  
  I’m interested as well. I lived in Rock Creek Springs as well, back in ’98 – ’03, and was told by the management when I moved in that you could park on the MD side of the street as long as you wanted, because although the pavement was DC, the curbside was MD, and DC couldn’t put parking restriction signs on that side of the street. When I moved in, there was a Toyota Camry in the 8000 block of the street, on the MD side, sitting on 4 flats and covered leaves and pollen, as if it had been there for at least a year. It was several months before the car was ever towed. If these cars are booted because of unpaid parking tickets elsewhere in the city, so be it. They are physically in DC and subject to its jurisdiction. But if they’re being booted simply for being in the spaces they currently occupy, it could be that some parking enforcement has gotten out of hand.
Accountering

Excellent – pay your parking tickets deadbeats.
- Anon
  
  My ex used to get around it by changing her plates whenever she accumulated enough unpaid tickets to warrant a boot. How the DMV never caught on to that scheme I’ll never know.
  - Anon Spock
    
    If she only used her powers for good.
  - ET
    
    I don’t know because usually the vin is also part of the ticks that I have gotten in DC and Arlington. (Glad you aren’t dating her anymore, she sound like drama)
  - The NeighborHood Reporter
    
    I did the same and don’t believe for one second that either jurisdiction don’t know about the other
textdoc

At first I saw only the title and was really perplexed — was wondering if it was some kind of tailgating affair, since “boot” is UK English for the trunk of a car.
.
(A “carboot sale” is basically a flea market. I’m not sure if people actually back up their cars and sell things directly out of their trunks, though.)
- Emmaleigh504
  
  I saw the title and read “booty party” and was confused by the pictures of cars.
  - textdoc
    
    Actual LOL!
  - Lexicon
    
    I also read “booty party” and was confused by the cars pictures, lol.
Dan

This is located on the Silver Spring, Maryland side on Eastern Avenue. I don’t think D.C. parking enforcement have the authority to boot vehicles in another state. This must be parking enforcement from Silver Spring, Maryland that placed the boots on these vehicles. Once MPD had a speed camera in the location on Eastern Avenue. I question MPD regarding the legality of placing a speed camera in Silver Spring, Maryland. MPD brushed me off. I reported the MPD camera placed in Maryland to MYFOXDC. Once the news media investigated, the MPD speed camera was removed on the Silver Spring, Maryland side of Eastern Avenue.
Dan

The last picture is on the D.C. side of Ward 4 Eastern Avenue, NW. This side of the street does have RPP Zone 4. There’s an Ethiopian church on the D.C. side of Eastern Avenue, NW. Many of their members have Maryland and Virginia tags. I assume some vehicles might have been booted for parking over 2 hours in a RPP zone and might have been ticketed numerous times. Although I live below Shepherd Park, I have a RPP Zone 4 sticker and I can park on any Shepherd Park Zone 4 RPP street.
jrodgers

My neighbor works from home and said there were multiple boot and/or tows near H street NE yesterday. Only thing she could figure is that it was during the day, it’s a RPP zoned street, and all had MD tags. Maybe DC is cracking down? I thought perhaps they were working toward hitting a monthly quota. If it continued today (the 1st), I guess not.
- Anon Spock
  
  They just ticket in the rpp. Tows could be a number of things. Boots are lots of unpaid tickets. Depending on the rpp, you get 2 hrs of free parking even with md tags, so I’m guessing these were repeat offenders.
Kingman Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt4mwy9OBNA
.
Disparaging the boot is a bootable offense!
ET

This seems to be a bit of a perennial issue and a source of confusion for police and parking enforcement. I saw something from 2007 about Mt. Rainer. http://www.gazette.net/stories/120607/hyatnew193031_32355.shtml

Then there was something from 2010. “…This is due in part to a common misconception that the border runs down the middle of three District boundary streets: Western, Eastern and Southern avenues. In fact, the District controls all three roads and several feet on the Maryland side — occasionally right up to a house. …”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052800032.html

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