Why I hate Oakland

It started the day we got a ticket for parking in front of our house. Apparently we were parked the wrong way, despite the fact that the street is really only one lane, despite the fact that all the other cars on our street were parked in the same direction as ours, despite the fact that we'd parked our car that way, as did our neighbors, for over 5 years.

Then came the ticket for our new car, parked in front of our house, which the ticket said, had an expired registration. Guess the person who issued the ticket couldn't see the temporary registration in the front window.

We contested both of these, H-band having to leave work to do so. And they let the second one go, at least we thought they did. We never heard back after contesting. Though we just received notice that we're in violation of the law and will now have to pay double or my credit will be affected, or the car will be impounded, or worse.

The next ticket came when I went to the doctor and saw there was no parking meter for my spot. I didn't see one nearby, so I simply parked and went to my appointment. I came back and found some gal writing me a ticket. There was a meter she said, pointing down the hill, more than one block away. All the meters work this way now. If I wanted to contest the ticket I could. 

This week, as I started to write my check to the city of Oakland, I found myself losing it. In the "for" line I wrote "ridiculous parking ticket". And then I wrote a note on the back about how pissed I am at the city for doing whatever it can to squeeze revenue out of its inhabitants. I voided the check. I have more room on this blog.

Comments

[Ken]

Big contrast against suburbia?

http://crazyinsuburbia.blogspot.com/2009/10/downtown-walnut-creek-salon-patrons.html

[http://3scorecomparison.com]

Instead of slashing our pay or merely patting us on the back for this competency, we'd prefer to get the proper credit.

[plusonefoundry.com]

I’m a lengthy time watcher and I just thought I’d drop by
and say hi there for the quite very first time.