A reader writes:
“I saw this DC parking enforcement car in Logan Circle (12th & Q). The parking people really ought to practice what they preach…”
parking
Photo by PoPville flickr user Wayan Vota
“Dear PoPville,
I have had Zone 1 parking for the past 6 years. A year ago I won an ADU (affordable dwelling unit) lottery. For those of you who are unfamiliar with ADU, your rent is based off your income. This provided us a home that we could afford that wasn’t “managed” by a slumlord. I waited until my car registration expired before changing my address at the DMV. Just this was more financially feasible for us at the moment then to pay multiple fees at multiple times. The DMV told me that even though the surrounding streets are zone 1, that my block in particular is not allowed to have the RPP permit. Just my block. The apartment building had made a deal with the ANC that they wouldn’t allow residents to have RPPs and that they would keep the block strictly commercial.
I completely understand where the ANC is coming from, but now I have a major problem. Parking used to be about 165$ for the entire year to have zoned parking, and I was able to park in multiple locations in the zone. Now I am being forced to either park illegally on the street or pay $200 per month to park only in a garage (which I cannot afford). Neither one of these are options for us at the moment. Neither is getting rid of my car. My apartment building never mentioned in the lease or verbally that we would be forced to have garage parking.
Has anyone been able to work themselves around this type of problem? Or have any ideas of who I can talk to that can help us with at least finding affordable parking if we can’t have RPP? (Does ADU parking exist?) Or just any advice in general about this?”
@MrsARodriguez tweets us the photo above:
“Parked a few spots down, didn’t see vendor sign. Happened 2 another guy 2. Lesson learned I guess! $30 ticket on top of having to pay $120 to get his car from the towing company.”
“Dear PoPville,
I did not realize until Sunday morning that drivers wanting to park along streets that have Sunday-only back-in parking near churches in Shaw were required to park that way during those times. I just figured it was permissible but not required. I was wrong. In other words, residents must move or adjust how their cars are parked by 7am on Sundays along many streets in Shaw. When I walked by 7th St NW Sunday morning two MPD officers were ticketing cars that were not properly parked (backed in, protruding into one lane of traffic).
What’s more, I understand that MPD will not ticket vehicles that remain backed in and blocking one lane of roadway after 3pm unless a complaint is called in.
By the way, the churches have petitioned the city to extend back-in parking on 6th St NW until 9pm Sundays. The city extended the hours while doing a study earlier this year. The study found that extended hours parking was unsafe but the Universal House of Prayer has hired an attorney to petition the city to allow the extended parking to remain. This extended parking makes it more challenging to find a place to park for residents as, even if they find a spot along that road, they need to move their car/adjust how its parked at 9pm…”
“Dear PoPville,
Have you seen parking ticket traps like this where paint says its parking zone but sign says no parking? There is one in front of target Columbia heights too.”
“Dear PoPville,
There has been an abandoned car parked continuously in the 1200 block of Monroe Street NW for nearly four months, and I’ve been unable to get it towed. It was first ticketed in March 2014, and it’s been ticketed every Monday (for street sweeping violations) since then. The tickets just continue to pile up on the windshield. I submitted a 311 request in April to get the car towed, and I contacted Jim Graham’s constituent services in May for help getting in touch with DPW– both times I received no response.
I don’t understand how an abandoned car can sit in the middle of Columbia Heights (where parking is already at a premium) for four months. Any idea how to finally get this abandoned car out of the neighborhood? Thanks for any help you can provide!”
A reader sends Sunday afternoon and writes:
“T street between 17 and 18th NW. Been that way since yesterday evening. Solid parking skills”
My guess is the driver was looking for a spot for 30+ minutes, finally found a tight one and on the fifth attempt just said “fahq it”…
“Dear PoPville,
I saw this sign in a car parked on my block in Logan Circle. Wtf? Can we all declare ourselves unticketable?
The full text is:
Please do not ticket this vehicle. There is NO ticketing of vehicles with Zone Two RPP stickers at this hour per:
Department of Public Works
Councilman Jack Evans
Thank you!”
Ed. Note: One of the many pros of owning your own laminating machine…
“Dear PoPville,
Maybe I’m overreacting (or maybe I don’t appreciate being called a douchebag so early) but I saw this note on my car this morning as I was parked in Zone 2 on the street and immediately became angry, grabbed it, and crumpled it up [ in the U Street Neighborhood right off of Florida just past Darnell’s]. I should have taken a picture of my parking but I was on my way to work and I also know what “double parking” is and knew I wasn’t a perpetrator. Is there some definition of the term that I am not aware of? In my experience if there is a space on the street I park there; who would be so bold (or so bored) to take the time to write a note, label me a douchebag, stop at my car, and place it on my windshield? Does the note writer know that people come and go from street spots all day and night? Has anyone else received an aggressive note with no merit?”
Ed. Note: Sometimes people are jerks, sometimes people are aggressive and sometimes the two intersect.
Photo by PoPville flickr user BrennaLM
“Dear PoPville,
I had parallel parked on a residential block of 11th street NW in a spot that was apparently reserved for a handicapped person that lived there. I did not see the sign (it was dark and I wasn’t looking for it, because I didn’t realize that a personal reserved handicapped spot was a thing–dumb, I know). When I came back to my car, I saw the $250 ticket, which was a gut punch, worsened by the fact that there was a free spot right in front of me.
I thought that was the worst of it, but as I studied the ticket (which was sitting on my windshield, face up, with no envelope, for all to see), I saw that it not only had my first, middle and last name, my address, my date of birth, my home address, and my license plate number, but it also had MY FREAKING SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ON IT! This seems like a massive privacy violation, not to mention incredibly stupid (and I think illegal) due to the HIGH RISK that anyone walking by could easily steal my identity or use the information for other ill purposes.
I saw online that a class action lawsuit was successful, ruling that police departments that put too much information on parking tickets are violating privacy law–and that case didn’t even involve a social security number! Has this happened to anyone else? Is it common/legal? Does anyone have advice of how I should proceed in reporting and possibly litigating this?
I’ve since learned about the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act, which governs the disclosure of personal information gathered by the DMV and the recent (2012) 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said that police that put too much personal information on parking tickets are in violation of the Drivers Privacy Protection Act (and the case in question here didn’t even have social security numbers on the ticket), so it really does seem like a violation was committed. Oh, yeah, and I called the police station (that’s who gave me the ticket) and they were phenomenally unhelpful and basically just said I could come into the station and file a complaint.”
Ed. Note: When I first got a DC drivers license in ’97 we had our Social Security number printed on the card, later this was removed and replaced with a random number. Never heard of one on a parking ticket before.
This was about 8:45 this morning.
“Dear PoPville,
How does one get MPD or DPW to enforce rush hour parking restrictions – in this case along the Mall? Sure, we’ve all been in the position of parking a few minutes before the restrictions end and waiting until 6:30 (or whatever time) to be safe. But some food and ice cream trucks have taken this to a new extreme, parking in the rush hour lanes on 7th street and elsewhere early in the morning (8am) and just waiting in their vehicles (or waiting in a car, saving the space) until parking becomes legal at 9:30. Cops seem uninterested in chasing them off. Meanwhile, traffic backs up because the lane isn’t available for use.”