Same here. One time I received a parking ticket in addition to an expired registration ticket on one day and then another expired registration ticket a couple days later.
When I went to the police station to pay, I politely mentioned that I hadn't time to pay my registration fee yet in the allotted "fix it" time and they were totally fine to waive the second ticket.
That said, Santa Barbara has also made their fair share of mistakes like ticketing entire zones of the city on Labor Day a few years ago when people assumed street sweeping wouldn't be happening. After issuing a few hundred tickets in a couple hours, they ended up halting ticketing and canceling all of the tickets. [1] Though people should have phoned into the city to ask about the closures, it was nice of the city to waive them.
Fight it and risk losing anyway and wasting a day defending myself. In LA and OC you also have to prepay the ticket and then they refund if you "win". Oh btw they also charge fees to defend yourself.
Just eat the cost of a 45 ticket.
I was just starting my first job but this was before this new boom so I didn't get paid a whole bunch. But I can see why tickets are considered a tax on the poor. If you get hit with one and you don't make enough $$$. You are fucked.
Even though I could afford to just pay the 45 ticket it ate away at me that I didn't fight it. Why am I being punished when I am pretty certain the meter maid didn't even know the law?
I can see the "tax on the poor" argument on one hand, but on the other hand permit parking areas are soooo much nicer to live in than playing a parking lottery every night, if you don't have on-site parking. And that wouldn't work without enforcement. I'm not in favor of free parking for all, there just isn't enough public road space out here.
I'm glad they're ending pay-to-play, and that article shows why it's terrible.
I am not really sure permit parking violations and tax on the poor are one or the other. Most people who are poor are not worried about tickets caused by permit parking violations more being randomly stopped for fixit tickets and the like. Again pay-to-play being taken out is a great first step. And there's just no real balanced way to handle this and thus the lawmakers balance the odds in their favor rather than the people they serve.
Not Philly, but I got one in SF that was pretty unreasonable.
I was parked in my neighborhood and had a valid residential permit that only required that I move my car for street sweeping. So when I parked on Wednesday, there was no sign that said I needed to move my car before the next Tuesday. On Friday evening (I know, because I checked my car on Thursday evening), someone who was moving posted a temporary permit they'd applied for their moving truck to park outside their apartment. I received a ticket on Saturday morning despite the requirement that the temporary permit be posted 72 hours in advance of the moving period.
I waited in a 90 minute line to contest it (the building where you contest/pay parking tickets is one of the few areas in the city where you'll find nothing but 30 minute meters, so it's virtually impossible to drive to contest a ticket without getting another ticket) and was told 'no' without any explanation.
I don't care how dishonest or sleazy Fixed is/was, if they're successfully fighting SFMTA's parking enforcement, I support them. Fuck SFMTA's parking enforcement...it is so beyond corrupt that the people involved need to be put in their place.
When I lived in SF, I went to the dpv building to get my California plates and was amazed to see the same thing! You cannot park anywhere nearby for anywhere near long enough to do anything there.
I was also amazed at the amount of "street cleaning" that happens there, we do it twice a year, and have significantly cleaner streets.
One time I parked in chinatown at 5:30 am on a Sunday in a spot that has free parking on Sunday. At 2:00 pm when I left there was a protest, with a full band, bleachers, and a dancing dragon around my car. Along with a temporary no parking sign, and a ticket. That sign was definitely not there in the morning, but I had no proof, so I just paid it.
Interesting side note, I recently had an Uber driver who worked for the PPA.
I received a parking ticket in Oakland for parking in a 2-hour for less than 15 minutes, leaving, and then returning 3 hours later. I had evidence that I was not at the location in between. The parking department didn't care, because their claim wasn't that I couldn't prove I had left, but rather that even what I claimed was illegal.
My online appeal was denied, my written appeal was denied, and my administrative hearing was denied. I paid an $83 fine and a $25 fee to file an appeal in court. Three months exactly after the supposed violation, a county judge dismissed my ticket. The city returned my $108.
The judge said there was literally nothing I could do to prevent the same situation in the future (ie, there is no feedback loop), but that I would prevail in court again.
This situation affects me regularly because I don't own a car, so I rent one hourly, drive to my residence, pick up my wife, go grocery shopping, return to my residence, and then eventually return the car. The Oakland parking department continues to believe that my actions are illegal.
