Tuesday, December 06, 2005

And a Word About Parking In My Village

My town has a reputation for RIDICULOUS parking rules. I understand that there are probably a bunch of other towns, cities, villages, what have you, also with archaic rules, but I'd like to share with you a bit about our personal story.

In our village, which is just outside of the Windy City, the parking rules state that you may not park on the street outside your home during the hours of 2:00am to 5:00am. This is especially difficult for those in apartments, but that's another rant altogether. The hours seem reasonable for those of us with houses. We have garages, side parking, driveways, etc.

We have a two car garage which is still full of crap that there isn't room for inside the house, therefore, only one car fits in the garage. One car still has to park on the apron of the garage. PC parks there - so close that if I'm on the passenger side, I have to climb out of his side of the car in order to exit. Our lovely parking patrol has, in the past issued him tickets citing that he was on village property. He paid those and then started parking so close to the garage that I'm surprised the car has not fused with the garage door, making sure that no part of the car whatsoever is sticking into the alley, not even by a centimeter; as a matter of fact, the fence on the houses on either side of us come farther out into the alley than his car.

Well now we find out that PC is being issued tickets that we've NEVER seen for being 18 inches into the alley. Now seriously! Don't these people have anything better to do in the middle of the night in subzero temps than to be on the ground with a measuring tape to see how far my husband's car is into the alley? It's ridiculous. They say you can protest, but the village doesn't care. I told PC that perhaps tonight we should take a picture of me trying to get out of the car or with the garage door coming down on top of his car because we're trying to get even further onto our own property.

It really is ridiculous. When, to avoid this, we have parked MY car on the apron outside the garage, I've not been ticketed...and MY car is considerably larger than his...I drive a station wagon - the Family Truckster, the Vista Cruiser, he drives a 4 door Honda Accord. Which do YOU think would be more likely to stick into the alley????????????? How are they justifying ticketing his car when my car is just fine??????? Any explanations?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Argue it in court. It might be dismissed in the interest of justice.

mommyguilt said...

Oh we'd love to. In this village, though, it really and truly is all about "no parking". People have been bitching and fighting it for YEARS. People have moved out of this village because of it. It's unbelievable. In their eyes, if we infringe on their property, well, then, OUR BAD...MORONS, aren't they? My MIL called them to protest and they told her that we were on village property by 18inches...((GAWK))

Unfortunately, I can't move out of there for another 9 years at least, since I'm legally bound there by divorce papers until SmallBoy turns 18 (yeah, ex is a moron too!).

My only solution at this point is to find places for all of the rest of the crap in my garage so that PC can park in there...oh yeah, and find my other garage door opener...

Anonymous said...

I agree these are rediculous citations....give me a break. Should be protested. I think it might be that the Honda is still registered in another town...doesn't have a village sticker. Towns are nototious for trying to stick it to outsiders....happens here too. Go protest!! Take pictures the day you get the ticket proving you are on your own property. You are right....how do they have time to measure every car's distance from the curb??????aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh
Meem