The church parking debate, once the province of irate residents and their neighborhood listservs, has gone mainstream — D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams took it on yesterday at his weekly press briefing.

The Washington Times is reporting that Williams brushed the issue aside, claiming it was his right as the city’s chief executive to arbitrarily enforce District parking laws. Claimed Williams:

There’s a zone of discretion for the executive…especially when it comes to something broad and systematic. I think it’d be wrong for me to say ‘I’m walking down the street and I’m going to give you a parking ticket that I won’t give you.’ But as a matter of broad policy it’s a different question.

Williams’ dictate has filtered down to the Department of Public Works, which is charged with enforcing the city’s parking laws and has of late had to pull an about-face on the church parking issue. Writes the Times:

City officials responded last month by announcing a new parking plan for the Northwest neighborhood that would add parking spaces and enforce laws against double parking beginning May 21. They said those laws would be enforced citywide beginning July 1. However, officials with the D.C. Department of Public Works (DPW) last month told The Times that parking laws must be enforced equally throughout a city and a policy dictating otherwise, such as the city’s plan to enforce first in Logan Circle and then citywide, would be illegal. “We would never enforce in one place and not the other,” said Mary Myers, a spokeswoman for DPW. “You have to enforce it everywhere.” But Miss Myers said yesterday that “things have changed” and equal enforcement is no longer required because Logan Circle is being used as a public policy pilot program.

We get it — the law is the law except for the places the mayor says it’s not.