July 11, 2007
Can You Get a Ticket for Schadenfreude?
YouTube user methticalman captured this footage of a D.C. Parking Enforcement Services vehicle being towed, and tagged it with "dcist". We asked him whether he could confirm the car was towed for being parked in an illegal spot, and he said he couldn't be totally sure -- it might have just been hauled away because it broke down, but it had indeed been parked in a no parking/standing area on 11th St. NW, near U Street, right at the corner where a driveway cuts through the curb lane. Either way, it's fun even to imagine a city employee whose job it is to ruin other people's days by issuing parking tickets getting a taste of their own medicine.
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you're only allowed to use big words if you can spell them. s-c-h-a-d-e-n-f-r-e-u-d-e.
It's Schadenfreude not >>Schadenfruede
man, that is sweet! hooray for the tow truck
I always liked it when illiterate punkers spelled it "pouser". Like "mouser" (read: a cat kept as a rodent exterminator)
I love the meter maids. If it weren't for them, I'd never get a legal spot, since commuters have overrun Capitol Hill, day and night. And everyone gives these workers crap. They are just doing their job, yet I see people yell at them constantly when they refuse to break the rules (risking their jobs) because you were 'only going in for a minute', etc.
Grow up, people. Parking enforcement sucks but it'd be total mayhem without it.
Hillman, there'd also be more murders in Anacostia without police...but just because police help prevent total mayhem doesn't mean cops should get to shoot whoever they want. Law enforcement must abide by the laws they uphold except in absolute emergency situations. In my mind, it's that simple.
I've seen meter maids ticket marked DC police cars before, so it's about time they get paid back.
When Ramsey was Chief he would often park one of his official MPD cars (an umarked sedan or a marked sedan labled "Cruiser One") illegally. More than once I saw his cars ticketed.
I dunno, I really don't see what's wrong with parking enforcement parking in a no parking zone if they are ticketing people who are illegally parked, but I guess that's just me.
In my hood if the meter maids don't park illegally there's no way they can do their jobs. Their jobs are literally going from block to block, reparking every couple of blocks, ticketing. All day. Every day.
And especially during the daytime there are no parking spaces here for blocks. They can't do their jobs without parking illegally. I've got no problem with them doing that, as long as they are parking safely.
Would you rather their vehicles be equipped with lights/sirens, and they double park blocking traffic so they can do their jobs? That would seem to be the only other logistical possibility.
No one bitches when cops park illegally, as long as we think it's required for them to do their job (unlike the many times they park illegally to pick up their dry cleaning or run personal errands on police time). So why is it we don't apply the same rules for meter maids?
Get real. There is NO WAY a parking enforcement vehicle was ticketed or towed for parking violations. Even if that was the policy, the culture would prevent that from ever actually happening.
Guest #7, I don't believe you. If you thought you saw that, you were mistaken. It must have seen a private security company get ticketed, OR perhaps a police vehicle from another jurisdiction. (THAT is true.. I've heard of police in one jurisdiction being real jerks to police in unmarked cars driving through another jurisdiction... pulling them over, asking them why they have police lights in THEIR jurisdiction, telling them they better not catch them using them, etc.)
That car must have broken down. Or its tires were slashed or something.
TD
Unlike most (all?) of the readers of this blog, I was once a meter maid (actually "parking enforcement agent") for a small Midwestern city. It was an easy gig for a college kid and paid well. I could tell stories for hours about the excuses I would hear and the BS I had to deal with, but I won't. However, the issue of parking enforcement vehicles parking illegally was something we always had to deal with.
Our policy was that a parking enforcement vehicle could park illegally to allow the agent to get out and write tickets. However, you were not allowed to block a hydrant, a person's driveway, a crosswalk, a bus loading zone or create a dangerous situation. Parking on the sidewalk or in a handicapped space was also prohibited.
Usual practice was to find a spot "at the end of the block" which, while technically illegal, was not really blocking anything. In fact, even if there were open spots on the street, I would still park illegally rather than take away a spot from a member of the parking public.
One more thing, nobody likes to get a ticket. However, remember, you really look like an idiot when you stand on a public street and start screaming at a moderately paid city employee about a relatively minor fine. And trust me, the parking enforcement agent isn't afraid of you, or intimidated by you, or even sympathetic with your case. Rather he isn't even listening to you. He is waiting for you to stop acting like a lunatic so that he can go back to doing his job.
Guest 6:13:
I think the same basic rules your city had apply in DC. With one notable exception. Just in the short time I've been at my current address we've had two meter maids (ok, 'parking enforcement') get transferred to other beats, for their own safety. Both were threatened to the point that they had to be transferred.
I think a lot of people in DC, especially habitual parking-rule-breakers, have no problem threatening or even assaulting parking enforcement. Sure, a lot is just bluster, albeit really unpleasant bluster. But apparently assault on DC parking enforcement is pretty routine. Sad, really.
I can't believe anyone that lives in this city defends the parking enforcement practices here. For all your bluster about lazy, inefficient, racist civil servants Hillman; here you are offering a verbal blumpkin to the lowest of the low, I just don't get it.
I think I would have less problem with the ruthless efficiency of parking enforcement in DC if we could get the same kind of attention to detail and cutting edge technology in our schools.
The law-breakers that have a meltdown on the 'parking enforcement officers' need professional help. These are the same non-DC residents that report their tags stolen once they incur too many unpaid tickets. I think it should be legal to shoot 'em.
Hillrat:
Exactly which parking laws do you wish them to stop enforcing?
And to clarify your mischaracterization, I never said all DC civil servants are lazy, inefficient, or racist. I said some are. And that their behavior is tolerated routinely by both city officials and some city residents.
And how exactly is it that parking enforcement workers get your designation 'lowest of the low'? Either that's a fairly elitist comment on your part, or you are dunning them for actually doing their job.
I've met more than my share of parking enforcement, and I'm often astonished that at least the ones I've met are as friendly as they are, given the mountains of shit they put with every day.
The real ruthless meter maids are all in Arlington. They're on you like cheap suit; and what's worse, their fines are way more expensive than in DC (although DC has raised them in recent years). I remember when a DC meter violation was something like 10 bucks, which is no more, and probably less, than what you'd pay in a garage. As I recall, Arlington gives you a twenty dollar fine for a meter violation and a 40(!) dollar fine for parking over two hours in a two hour zone (which always pissed me off hugely, seeing as meters are in the more congested areas and more likely to be occupied by non-residents). It's probably even worse now.
In general I support the maids. Although in the past I've seen some pretty disparate enforcement, where a car would sit for weeks in the same 2 hour zoned spot, while I got a ticket across the street for staying there 3 hours.
What I'd really like to know is whether those low numbered DC plates ever get tickets. I still have never heard a satisfactory justification for those things. They seem designed for corruption.
I like how we're tying this in with a rant about non-DC residents, in typical DCist fashion.
Reid:
You raise some valid points.
I hate the low numbered DC plate thing. It reeks of some third rate country where the Potentate doles out political favors.
I also think it's ironic when suburbanites complain about DC parking enforcement. It's FAR worse in a lot of DC suburbs. Try parking in a residential area off of Wilson Blvd or other Nova areas. A lot of them all NO parking without a residential sticker, and you can bet your butt the ticket will be on your car if you violate that. And they tickets tend to be quite a bit heftier than DC tickets.
Contrary to the assertions of many DC parking enforcement isn't nearly as aggressive as their suburban counterparts. I often see commuter cars taking 60 or 70 percent of Hill streets, parking their all day with no tickets. You can bet this would NEVER happen in Arlington, Fairfax, etc.
Real cities like Philadelphia have entire neighborhoods where you can't park for one second unless you have a residential sticker. That's how it should be here, at least in areas where commuters are a problem. Or at a bare minimum one side of the street should be that way.
I fully support a graduated fine system for residential zone parking violators (this is by far the biggest parking problem we have). The first ticket should be $30 or whatever it is now. The second fine should be $75. The third should be $200. The fourth should be $500, and an automatic tow.
TD/guest11: The marked police cruiser that had a ticket was a white DC Metropolitan Police car parked near judiciary square/police headquarters. It was parked in a meter that had run out.
I live in Logan (1300 block of R), and without parking enforcement of some kind, my wife and I would *never* be able to park our cars remotely near our home, particularly on weekends. I'm sure there is some uneven enforcement, and I'm also sure that some meter maids can get surly...but good grief, with the amount of BS they have to put up with on a daily basis, is anyone surprised? At any rate, I'm generally happy to see them on my block.
Now, if they would only do something about the church parkers who block alleys, crosswalks, and hydrants...